Maror is the story of a war for a country's soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents. As a study of biblical comeuppance, the land and the blood have the last say. I recommend Adama as an instructive primer for today's generation of Israeli politicians. There are, indeed, lessons to be learned Maror was one of my favourite books of last year so I'm not surprised at all that I loved Adama. Lavie Tidhar is something of a genius: he takes handfuls of threads, seemingly unconnected, and weaves them into a rich, colourful, textured tapestry.

Un coche bomba a principios de nuestro siglo nos introduce a Cohen, un inspector de policía al más puro estilo Villarejo español, cuyas redes se extienden más allá del cuerpo policial israelí al que pertenece. Cuando empezamos a atisbar el alcance del tejido del cual forma parte central Tidhar nos lleva a la década de los años setenta donde conoceremos a un joven Cohen y los acontecimientos que le hicieron llegar a ser quien es en los 2000. Tidhar, Lavie (15 February 2013). "Central Station". Archived from the original on 2 April 2013 . Retrieved 16 February 2013. My one peeve with this book is that I felt the ending to be too open-ended. While I understand the choice to do it this way, I also can't but feel that something is missing for me in giving the entire narrative more purpose and more closure. Maybe it's just me, and others will find this ending congruent with the rest of the narrative.Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition winner, for short story, "Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs" Radiant with [...] the richly nuanced complexity and style of Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings ... Will catch your breath as it presents the history of Israel from unique points of view, with dazzling multi-generational scope.' LoveReading The book delivers when it comes to nuance and awareness of the conflict in the region, without overtly taking a side and reflecting the raw deal everyone involved gets. Political affiliations and international relations ultimately boil down to nothing in the name of achieving end goals though, with enemies enemies becoming friends, when the time calls for it. Ostracised by Israel’s literary establishment for most of his life, Kaniuk captures the horror of the 1948 war for a soldier abandoned by his commander, forced to hide amid the corpses as vultures circle overhead, in the first of these two classic novellas. In the second, two elderly fighters, disgusted by the modern state, go on a murderous spree against the “scumbags”, their ageing generation’s children (the Hebrew title, Nevelot, also meaning “corpses”) who they have grown to hate. Savage and beautiful in turns. Top 10 eyewitness accounts of 20th-century history | Charles Emmerson

I've been a fan of the author for quite some time, and read several of his novels. The first thing that stands out with Maror is that it's unlike anything else he's ever written. Of course his energetic style, vividness of descriptions, and vivacious characters are all there, but this time - there is no speculative component. The book is a retelling of Israel's nationbuilding through the lens of its criminal underbelly, taking inspiration from multiple real-life events that occurred in Israel between 1970 and 2001 (roughly). The amount of research that has gone into this book is truly impressive - the author brings to life (albeit hypothetically) pivotal historical events and the characters that shaped them, with the fictional character Cohen involved in each story. You don't really know if Cohen is a villain or a saint, and in some ways he represents to id of the Israeli nation (perhaps?). The painstaking detail the author pays to the music of each period is also deeply impressive, as it provides a red thread of the emotional torrent in each period (from nationalistic fervour to individualistic hedonism). Adama is an unstoppable masterpiece... If history is a nightmare we're all trying to wake up from, then Adama is a trumpet blast that rings out the past and into the future' Junot Díaz Dragon Award Ballot – The Dragon Award". www.dragoncon.org. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Alongside the cynical counter-history, Tidhar also gives a vivid portrayal of Israel - weaving in three decades of music with a sensual portrayal of young people living their lives (a fascinating tapestry, that, of kibbutzniks, youth workers, journalists, rookie cops and many others), of the food, the bewildering contrasts between different corners of what is a very small country. Political events make an impression, with hopes for peace undercut by repeated incursions into Lebanon and, eventually, by assassination and by a shift in the mood of the politics. There is a sense of decaying idealism, but also a recognition of wrongs buried in the founding history of the land: Arab villages that are no more, bodies buried on the beach. Cohen knows where the bodies are buried, he may have just some of them there himself, but best not talk about that...

Reviews

Mr. Spellman's Last Dance", in Grave Conditions, ed. Scott Nicholson, 2010, 6pp strip with artist Andre Siregar. As a study of biblical comeuppance, the land and the blood have the last say. I recommend Adama as an instructive primer for today's generation of Israeli politicians. There are, indeed, lessons to be learned' Jewish Chronicle

One of the boldest, most visionary writers I've ever read creates both a vivid political exploration and a riveting crime epic. It's like the Jewish Godfather! Ruth was, it becomes clear, an idealist, who travelled to Palestine to be part of the founding of her nation. And if that founding requires sacrifice, or casualties, whether Ruth's comrades, the kibbutz's Arab neighbours, or British soldiers, well. Ruth is later joined by her sister Shosh, who survived the Holocaust: for Shosh, Trashim - and Israel - are less a yearned for destination than a necessary (and perhaps temporary) refuge. This tension between those who belong - or want to belong - and those who want more, is a recurring theme, one that also runs through the kibbutz's generations of children. It's a sad theme, and time and again people are lost - they die, they vanish, they just leave. There's a stripping away across the generations with the communal life of the kibbutz repelling some and the hard-won community itself mutating into something its founders might not recognise. McFarlane, Anna (2019). "Time and Affect After 9/11: Lavie Tidhar's Osama: A Novel". In Sideways in Time: Critical Essays on Alternate History Fiction, ed. Glyn Morgan and C. Palmer-Patel, Liverpool University Press. In this context, even readers who are unaware of details of the tragic shooting of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 can understand why the moderate centre could not hold; why, in the end, money and ideology would win out over a desire for peace. Talking To Ghosts At The End Of The World" - Infinity's End, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books 2018I really enjoyed this book and also think it can be a great (and fun) introduction to Israel for people who've only read about the political side of it. The author quotes Bialik (a famous Jewish poet) in saying: "We shall only have a true state when we have our own Hebrew thief, our own Hebrew whore, and our own Hebrew murderer", and this, for me, epitomises the purpose of the author in embarking on this journey. I wouldn't do that,' it said. 'If I were you. One gives you life and the other knowledge, and you're too young to need either one just yet.''You're a snake,' Avi said. 'No s And Tidhar, born in a kibbutz but now living in London, has turned his attention away from his favoured sci-fi and fantasy to examine the soul of Israel. It’s not always a pretty picture. This latter point is, in my view, the main axis of the entire narrative (and the meta-narrative). The question is what can and should one sacrifice for the idea of a group of people having their own land (whether state, or kibbutz). While this question could have been dealt with simplistically, showing the cruelty and horror such abject dedication to an idea can give rise to, the author, instead, shows also the psychological and social underpinnings that, for some, necessitate this dedication. In this way, the book is perhaps among the best and nuanced assessments of the main tension in Israeli society and politics, and explains, through a microcosm of one kibbutz, what drives some of the most horrific, as well as some of the most heroic, acts by Israel then and today.

Gur captured what it was like to grow up on a kibbutz in a way no one else did, and her detective, Michael Ohayon, serves as the perfect intruder into that closed society, uncovering the simmering tensions beneath the sun-drenched communal ideal I was raised in.

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Word by word I was drawn deeper and deeper into this incredible book – a story of inheritance, loss, longing and what could have been. Lavie Tidhar's prose is beautiful, his characters lacerating and heartbreaking by turns. I loved it. It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen. In Charlie Kaufman's Antkind (2020), protagonist B. Rosenberger Rosenberg is portrayed as a former fan of Tidhar (along with Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison) turned against him. ""Yes," she screams, "Tidhar! You loved Tidhar!"" ... "I try to call after her, but I cannot. I cannot be a man who countenances Tidhar." [57] Maror by Lavie Tidhar is a beautifully written and engaging novela that tells the story of a man searching for his true identity. The novella is structured as a series of interconnected vignettes that chronicle the protagonist's journey of self-discovery. Each vignette is a piece of a puzzle that gradually comes together to reveal the protagonist's traumatic past and the events that shaped his life.