Bøger af Amos Oz

Min Michael er et mesterligt portræt af en kvinde og hendes store ulykkelige kærlighed, til en mand og til livet. Romanen, der er skrevet i 1968 - og fik sit internationale gennembrud i årene herefter - foreligger nu for første gang på dansk, og er på én gang tidløs og sitrende nærværende.Romanen foregår i Jerusalem under Suez-krisen midt i 1950erne, og er historien om ægteskabet mellem den sensitive og intense Hannah og hendes Min Michael - en rolig, hårdtarbejdende og pligtopfyldende mand, der har afskåret sig selv fra de dybder, Hannah drukner i. På overfladen en traditionel historie fra den første forelskelse og ægteskab til fødslen af deres søn, men langsomt drages Hannah ned af depressionen og ind i sin egen verden af storslåede og meget voldsomme erotiske fantasier, mens Michael må forsøge at tage sig både af hende og den lille søn. Hans indkaldelse til den truende krig falder sammen med og forstærker Hannahs psykiske problemer. Den lille familie trues - ligesom meget i byen omkring dem - af opløsning og sammenbrud.Skildringen af Hannahs snigende sammenbrud og af kontrasten mellem hendes indre verden og de ydre realiteter er fuld af uhyre præcise iagttagelser, nuancer og mellemtoner. Den bevægende historie om hvordan hendes psyke, deres forhold og den lille familie langsomt, men uafvendeligt falder fra hinanden flettes sammen med et levende portræt af det fascinerende miljø i de jødiske kvarterer i Jerusalem. Med et mylder af farverige skikkelser og en stemning præget af lige dele fremtidshåb og pessimisme, glødende politisk overbevisning side om side med stor smerte og giftige neuroser.

Vi er sidst i 1950’erne. I den israelske kibbutz Yekhat forsøger mennesker med vidt forskellige skæbner og forudsætninger at leve sammen. Blandt dem er gartneren Provizor, der omhyggeligt følger med i alverdens ulykker og katastrofer, og mens kibbutzen bliver frodig hans kyndige hænder, rammer en enkelt berøring ham selv som et lyn. Der er ulykkelige Osnat, som skriver omsorgsfulde breve til Ariella, der har snuppet hendes mand. Og smeden Roni, som en aften sætter hælene i og tager sin lille søn hjem fra børnehuset.Det er historier om kærlighed, drømme, misundelse og længsel – og om ensomhed, på et sted, hvor fælleskabet er dagsordnen, og ingen burde føle sig ensom.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017Amos Oz's first major novel in a decade - since A Tale of Love and Darkness, which sold over 100,000 copies Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Times Literary SupplementShmuel, a young, idealistic student, is drawn to a mysterious handwritten note on a campus noticeboard.

A story, in which the author takes us on a journey through his childhood and adolescence, along Jerusalem's war-torn streets in the 1940s and '50s, and into the infernal marriage of two kind, well-meaning people: his fussy, logical father, and his dreamy, romantic mother.

An urgent and deeply necessary work, Dear Zealots offers three powerful essays that speak directly to our present age, on the rise of zealotry in Israel and around the world. "Concise, evocative . . . Dear Zealots is not just a brilliant book of thoughts and ideas-it is a depiction of one man's struggle, who for decades has insisted on keeping a sharp, strident and lucid perspective in the face of chaos and at times of madness." - David Grossman, winner of the Man Booker International Prize From the incomparable Amos Oz comes a series of three essays: on the universal nature of fanaticism and its possible cures, on the Jewish roots of humanism and the need for a secular pride in Israel, and on the geopolitical standing of Israel in the wider Middle East and internationally.Dear Zealots is classic Amos Oz-fluid, rich, masterly, and perfectly timed for a world in which polarization and extremism are rising everywhere. The essays were written, Oz states, "first and foremost" for his grandchildren: they are a patient, learned telling of history, religion, and politics, to be thumbed through and studied, clung to even, as we march toward an uncertain future.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award: A "gorgeous, rueful collection of eight linked stories" capturing the collective dreams of Israel in the 1950s (Chicago Tribune).These eight interconnected stories, set in the fictitious Kibbutz Yekhat, draw masterful profiles of idealistic men and women enduring personal hardships in the shadow of one of the greatest collective dreams of the twentieth century. A devoted father who fails to challenge his daughter's lover, an old friend, a man his own age; an elderly gardener who carries on his shoulders the sorrows of the world; a woman writing perversely poignant letters to her husband's mistress. Each of these stories is a luminous human and literary study; together they offer an eloquent portrait of an idea, and of a charged and fascinating epoch. Award-winning writer Amos Oz, who spent three decades living on a kibbutz, is at home and at his best in this "lucid and heartbreaking" award-winning collection (The Guardian)."Oz lifts the veil on kibbutz existence without palaver. His pinpoint descriptions are pared to perfection . . . His people twitch with life." -The Scotsman

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER and winner of the International Literature Prize. At once an exquisite love story and a coming-of-age novel, an allegory for the state of Israel and for the biblical tale from which it draws its title, Judas is one of Amos Oz's most powerful novels.Jerusalem, 1959. Shmuel Ash, a biblical scholar, is adrift in his young life when he finds work as a caregiver for a brilliant but cantankerous old man named Gershom Wald. There is, however, a third, mysterious presence in his new home. Atalia Abravanel, the daughter of a deceased Zionist leader, a beautiful woman in her forties, entrances young Shmuel even as she keeps him at a distance. Piece by piece, the old Jerusalem stone house, haunted by tragic history and now home to the three misfits and their intricate relationship, reveals its secrets. "[A] magnificent novel . . . Oz pitches the book's heartbreak and humanism perfectly from first page to last."--New York Times Book Review "Scintillating . . . An old-fashioned novel of ideas that is strikingly and compellingly modern."--Observer "Oz has written one of the most triumphant novels of his career."--Forward "A [big] beautiful novel . . . Funny, wise, and provoking."--Times (UK)

When Soumchi, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in British-occupied Jerusalem just after World War II, receives a bicycle as a gift from his Uncle Zemach, he is overjoyed-even if it is a girl's bicycle. Ignoring the taunts of other boys in his neighborhood, he dreams of riding far away from them, out of the city and across the desert, toward the heart of Africa. But first he wants to show his new prize to his friend Aldo. In the tradition of such memorable characters as Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield, Amos Oz's Soumchi is fresh, funny, and always engaging.

As well as being one of Israel's preeminent writers of fiction, Amos Oz was one of the first voices of conscience in Israel to advocate the creation of a Palestinian state and has been a leading figure of the Peace Now movement since 1977. This superb collection of essays offers Oz's cogent views on Israel's offensive into Lebanon in 1982; fanaticism of all stripes; the PLO; Israeli terrorism; the new militarism and the growing intolerance toward the Arab population in Israel; Jewish attitudes toward the Holocaust, and its misappropriation by the right and left alike; Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah; the dream of Zionism and its failures; and much more.

Revelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos OzIn the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple? presents the most revealing of these conversations in English for the first time, painting an illuminating and disarmingly intimate portrait of a towering literary figure.In frank and open exchanges that are by turns buoyant, introspective, and argumentative, Oz explains what impels him to begin a story and shares his routines, habits, and challenges as a writer. He discusses the tectonic changes he experienced in his lifetime in relationships between women and men, and describes how his erotic coming of age shaped him not only as a man but also as an author. Oz reflects on his parents, his formative years on a kibbutz, and how he dealt with and learned from his critics, his students, and his fame. He talks about why there is more humor in his later books and gives his exceptional take on fear of death.Resonating with Oz's clear, honest, and humorous voice, What Makes an Apple? offers unique insights about Oz's artistic and personal evolution, and enables readers to explore his work in new ways.

Thoughtful, self-assured and highly sophisticated, full of the most skillful modulations of tone and texture. A modern Israeli Madame Bovary.--New York Times Book Review Set in 1950s Jerusalem, My Michael is the story of a remote and intense woman named Hannah Gonen and her marriage to a decent but unremarkable man named Michael. As the years pass and Hannah's tempestuous fantasy life encroaches upon reality, she feels increasingly estranged from him and the marriage gradually disintegrates. Gorgeously written, profoundly moving, this extraordinary novel is at once a haunting love story, and a rich reflective portrait of a place. A dazzling, very beautiful, splendidly conceived and composed book. --New York Review of Books

The International Bestselling memoir from award-winning author Amos Oz, "one of Isreal's most prolific writers and respected intellectuals" (The New York Times), about his turbulent upbringing in the city of Jerusalem in the era of the dissolution of Mandatory Palestine and the beginning of the State of Israel.Winner of the National Jewish Book Award"[An] ingenious work that circles around the rise of a state, the tragic destiny of a mother, a boy's creation of a new self."--The New YorkerA family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother's suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and community to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation."One of the most enchanting and deeply satisfying books that I have read in many years."--New Republic

"In a world full of hype, noise, and confusion, the simple lucidity of The Same Sea is totally unexpected." - New York Times Book ReviewThe Same Sea is Amos Oz's most adventurous and inventive book, a novel of lyrical beauty and narrative power. We meet the middle-aged Albert; his wife, whom he has lost to cancer; his prodigal son, who wanders the mountains of Tibet hoping to find himself; and his son's young girlfriend, with whom Albert becomes infatuated. The author himself receives phone calls from his creations, criticizing him for his portraits of them. A fever dream of chaos and order, love and eroticism, loyalty and betrayal. "A prose poem . . . at once melancholic and sensual." - The New Yorker

"Countries need writers as their voices of conscience; few have them. Israel has Oz." - Washington PostThe year is 1947: the last days of the British mandate in Palestine. Twelve-year-old Proffy, indoctrinated by his patriotic father and a zealous Bible teacher, dreams of dying heroically in battle, fighting for the creation of a Jewish state. Then he meets and befriends a kindly British soldier who shares with Proffy a love of language and the Bible. Accused of treason for the friendship, Proffy must learn the true nature of loyalty and betrayal. Panther in the Basement is a rich tapestry of character and political intrigue set against the birth of modern Israel."Insightful, inventive, and lyrical." - New York Times Book Review

"Brilliant and insistent . . . The prose is sharp as a cameo, simple yet compelling, smoky, precise, lustrous, eerie." - Boston Sunday Globe Here Amos Oz captures the atmosphere of hatred in which Jews have lived, died, and struggled for understanding. In Crusade, a band of soldiers journeys toward the Holy Land, killing any Jews they encounter; but soon the Crusaders face their own reckoning, as disease and deprivation take their toll.Late Love portrays an aged lecturer in modern Israel with paranoid visions of the destruction of his people at the hands of the Soviets. He is out of touch with a younger and saner generation, but knows they must be warned. "Powerfully written, with subtlety and flagrance delicately balanced." - Austin American-Statesman

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year"[To Know a Woman has] the powerful undertow of myth . . . A rich and affecting novel." - New York TimesFollowing the accidental death of his wife, Israeli secret service agent Yoel Ravid retires to the suburbs with his daughter, mother, and mother-in-law. After a lifetime of uncovering other people's secrets, he is forced to look back on his own: the desolate enigma of his wife's life and death, his years of service to the state, the riddle of his daughter's behavior. Amos Oz infuses Yoel's story with poetry, humor, and a vivid sense of the madness inherent in everyday existence."His language is Hebrew, his setting Israel, his message is universal." - Boston Jewish Times

"Oz's strangest, riskiest, and richest novel." -Washington Post Book WorldIsrael, just before the Six-Day War. On a kibbutz, the country's founders and their children struggle to come to terms with their land and with each other. The messianic father exults in accomplishments that had once been only dreams; the son longs to establish an identity apart from his father; the fragile young wife is out of touch with reality; and the gifted and charismatic "outsider" seethes with emotion. Through the interplay of these brilliantly realized characters, Oz evokes a drama that is chillingly, strikingly universal."[Oz is] a peerless, imaginative chronicler of his country's inner and outer transformations." -Independent (UK)

"Sensuous prose and indelible imagery." - New York TimesThree stories in which history and imagination intertwine to re-create the world of Jerusalem during the last days of the British Mandate. Refugees drawn to Jerusalem in search of safety are confronted by activists relentlessly preparing for an uprising, oblivious to the risks. Meanwhile, a wife abandons her husband, and a dying man longs for his departed lover. Among these characters lives a boy named Uri, a friend and confidant of several conspirators who love and humor him as he weaves in and out of all three stories. The Hill of Evil Counsel is "as complex, vivid, and uncompromising as Jerusalem itself" (Nation).

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year "A rich symphony of humanity . . . If Oz's eye for detail is enviable, it is his magnanimity which raises him to the first rank of world authors." -Sunday Telegraph (UK) At Tel-Kedar, a settlement in the Negev desert, the longtime love affair between Theo, a sixty-year-old civil engineer, and Noa, a young schoolteacher, is slowly disintegrating. When a pupil dies under difficult circumstances, the couple and the entire town are thrown into turmoil. Amos Oz explores with brilliant insight the possibilities-and limits-of love and tolerance. "Vivid, convincing, and haunting." -New York Times Book Review

The haunting poetry of [Oz's] prose and the stunning logic of his testimony make a potent mixture." -Washington Post Book World Amos Oz was one of the first voices of conscience to advocate for a two-state solution. As a founding member of the Peace Now movement, Oz has spent over thirty-five years speaking out on this issue, and these powerful essays and speeches span an important and formative period for understanding today's tension and crises. Whether he is discoursing on the role of writers in society or recalling his grandmother's death in the context of the language's veracity; examining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a tragicomedy or questioning the Zionist dream, Oz remains trenchant and unflinching in this moving portrait of a divided land. "[Oz is] the modern prophet of Israel." -Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"Astonishing . . . galvanic and intoxicating." -The New YorkerFima lives in Jerusalem, but feels he ought to be somewhere else. In his life he has had secret love affairs, good ideas, and written a book of poems that aroused expectations. He has thought about the purpose of the universe and where the country lost its way. He has felt longings of all sorts, and the constant desire to pen a new chapter. And here he is now, in his early fifties in a shabby apartment on a gloomy wet morning, engaged in a humiliating struggle to release his shirt from the zipper of his fly. With wit and insight, Amos Oz portrays a man-and a generation-dreaming noble dreams but doing nothing."One of Oz's most memorable fictional creations . . . Fima is a cross between Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Joyce's Leopold Bloom." - Washington Post

This collection - published here in English for the first time - brings together a number of political, personal and literary pieces by Israel's most celebrated living novelist. Their refreshing blend of scepticism and idealism will attract new readers while delighting those already familiar with Oz's writings.