Mariana Fisher Books

'On the kibbutz it's hard to know. We're all supposed to be friends but very few really are' Ariella, unhappy in love, confides in the woman whose husband she stole. Nahum, a devoted father, can't find the words to challenge his daughter's promiscuous lover. The old idealists deplore the apathy of the young, while the young are so used to kibbutz life that they can't work out if they're impassioned or indifferent. And amid this group of people unwilling and unable to say what they mean, Martin attempts to teach Esperanto.

The authors roam the gamut of Jewish history to explain the integral relationship of Jews and words. Father and daughter tell the tales behind Judaism's most enduring names, adages, disputes, texts, and quips. These words, they argue, compose the chain connecting Abraham with the Jews of every subsequent generation. From the unnamed, possibly female author of the Song of Songs through obscure Talmudists to contemporary writers, they suggest that Jewish continuity, even Jewish uniqueness, depends not on central places, monuments, heroic personalities, or rituals but rather on written words and an ongoing debate between the generations.

The Israeli master's exceptional final novel SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017 Shmuel - a young, idealistic student - has abandoned his studies in Jerusalem, taking a live-in job as a companion to a cantankerous old man. But Shmuel quickly becomes obsessed with the taciturn Atalia, a woman of enchanting beauty, who also lives in the house. As the household's tangled, tragic past becomes apparent, so too does story behind the birth of the state of Israel. Journeying back into the deep past, Judas is a love story like no other by a master storyteller at the height of his powers. 'A hero of mine, a moral as well as literary giant' Simon Schama 'One of his boldest works of all' Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times 'Amos Oz...brought so much beauty, so much love, and a vision of peace to our lives. Please hold him in your hearts and read his books' Natalie Portman Judas is the first novel selected for the Amos Oz reading circle established by Natalie Portman.

An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart on stage; an act of disintegration, a man crumbling, as a matter of choice, before their eyes. They could get up and leave, or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell