Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., October 07, 2008 Tishrei 8, 5769 | | Israel Time: 21:32 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Haaretz Toolbar Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Books - archives Tags: Israel, books What do we do now? So, you're convinced that you, too, have to do your part to save the environment, but where to begin? By Daniel Orenstein Advertisement First cut is the deepest Judith Katzir's tale of forbidden love is a morality play that creates its own brand of morality. By Rifka Dzodin How the war was won Benny Morris serves up a technical and highly detailed analysis of the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war, together with a more personal and political look at the long-term implications of the ongoing conflict. By Rifka Dzodin With all due respect Hadar Kimhi's small book of social dos and don'ts harks back to a pre-sexual-revolution social order. By Shoham Smith What do we mean when we say 'Kafkaesque'? The great Czech-Jewish writer was more than your garden-variety neurotic. But from to believing that his stories and novels were basically autobiographical is excessively reductionist. By Gerald Sorin One people, endless opinions Avi Katzman offers a collection of 60 contentious points of public dispute that shook up the Jewish nation to the depths of its soul. By Uri Avnery The secrets of the Messiah Knowing the history of the Zohar and its reception, one can better understand the spiritual and political worlds of Judaism as they have evolved over the past 700 years. By Mor Altshuler Miss Debby's Afghan experiment She went to Kabul as a hairdresser and opened a school for aspiring beauticians. But her memoir of the experience reads like a well-written work of anthropology. By Zvi Bar'el Between silk and barbed wire Sami Michael's 'Aida' is first and foremost a love story. But it is also the tale of the last Jew of Iraq, a man who flits between loneliness, nostalgia and longing. By Ronny Someck A conversation with Sarab Aburabia-Queder The first Bedouin woman from the Negev to receive a doctorate has devoted her first book to the subject of women like herself - Bedouin women who have defied the social norms of their society to pursue a higher education and career. By David B. Green Inventing an invention According to Shlomo Sand, everything you ever thought you knew about the Jewish people as a nation with ethno-biological origins is false. Israel Bartal, however, says Sand didn't do his homework. By Israel Bartal A conversation with Joanna Hershon American author of 'The German Bride' a novel set among Jewish immigrants to the frontier town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the years following the Civil War. By David B. Green Netivot, the heart of everything In depicting the impoverished Negev where his heroine grows up in the 1980s, Shimon Adaf presents a Netivot that is rich and alive. It is only when she moves to Tel Aviv that Ori's existence becomes flat, and the novel too loses some of its life. By Naama Gershy Apocalyptic man The diaries of Gershom Scholem only serve to deepen the mystery of the Judaic scholar. But they also provide the raw material for grasping the complexities of one of the most fascinating intellectuals of the 20th century. By Steven Aschheim Mother of a nation, but not much of a mother Elinor Burkett debunks the image of Golda Meir as 'everybody's bubbe,' and offers instead the bigger picture of the best man in Ben-Gurion's cabinet (a phrase she hated). By Shoshana Kordova In your head, not your feet The splashy cover exudes machoism, but the advice of Doron Meiri's book is sound: You need willpower and stamina to get in shape. By Yossi Melman Trekking past the milestone Eyal Halfon eased into his 50th birthday by walking the Israel National Trail with longtime friends, in an effort to stave off the inevitable march of time. By Yossi Klein Scratching the surface of nothing For Keith Gessen's characters, youth is a burden, but adulthood promises little in the way of fulfillment. By Ruth Margalit Between privilege and alienation In a fascinating mystery, set in Saudi Arabia, Zoe Ferraris takes us on a unique journey to investigate a young girl's disappearance. By Ilene R. Prusher Let My Critics Go Author Leon Uris has been blasted for employing stereotypical characters, comic book dialogue and even too many exclamation points. But 'Exodus' remains an amazingly timeless advocate for Zionism and Jewish pride. By Darren Garnick His only friend Over the centuries, Shakespeare's Shylock has been played both to the grossest of anti-Semitic types, and with sympathy and compassion. A new cinematic interpretation lends an extra measure of understanding to the character. By Michael Handelzalts No speakie the language They run around the world documenting little-spoken languages before they become obsolete. And if their work helps keep a tongue alive a little longer, all the better. By David B. Green Are you ready to bang heads together? Aaron David Miller, who has seen Mideast leaders bleary-eyed, angry and conciliatory, explains why the U.S. has failed to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. By Ephraim Sneh A pilgrim's progress 'Houses of Study' is about the coming-of-age not only of a single individual, but also of a generation of women brought up in a not-yet self-confident stream of Orthodoxy. By Esther Solomon Portrait of a National Psyche Although much of the attention paid to David Grossman's new book is attributable to the parallels between the story and his own life, it happens to be his best novel in more than 15 years. It is also a journey to the heart of the Israeli consensus. By Michael Gluzman Tale for our time Nobel Prize-winning writer Imre Kertesz has written what is nominally a mystery novel, taking place in an unidentified totalitarian Latin American state. But, like all of his fiction, it is about the Holocaust, and also about the very nature of freedom. By Gerald Sorin A voracious appetite for Hebrew music A look at Hebrew songs over the generations reveals intense, genuine love sprung from absolute rejection. By Nissim Calderon A spoonful of bizarre in every story The key to reading Etgar Keret is to accept, not overanalyze, the string of inexplicable, beautiful moments presented in his indelible style. By Jeremy Dauber What we knew, and yet didn't know Ada Pagis's splendid writing opens a window into the very private life of renowned scholar and Holocaust survivor Yisrael Gutman. By Yechiam Weitz War? What war? Eva Menasse's semi-autobiographical novel is all about World War II and the Holocaust, although these events and their horrors are almost never mentioned directly. By Dafna Ruppin Their willful and continued exclusion Yair Bauml's book is important for understanding the state's policies toward its Arab citizens in the so-called 'good old days' for which we tend to wax nostalgic. By Sarah Ozacky-Lazar No love lost Gregory Levey's account of his short career working for Israel abounds with funny anecdotes but is mired in antipathy for the country itself. By Paul Gross A Conversation with Ilai Melzer As Hebrew Book Week gets underway, the managing director of a family-owned publishing house talks about why small can be good, and about Harry P., and explains why it sometimes seems that the people who make and sell books care only about best-sellers (hint: because it's true). By David B. Green The last enormous change Grace Paley's newest book of poetry was published in the quiet interval between March's icy grip and April's melting promise. By Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi Getting to the promised land A Jewish patriot who came to Israel to volunteer in '67, and has lived on and off in the country since then, Bernard Avishai is able to cut through the endless discussions and proposals and in clear-cut prose explain what Israel should do to get out of the quagmire with the Palestinians and the occupation. By Marcus Rubin Learning to live with one another Raymond Cohen's book traces in meticulously annotated detail the bumpy road traveled by the Christian denominations with claims to space inside the church whose foundations go back to the fourth century, to assert those claims. By Miriam Feinberg Vamosh 'Let us die in harness' Raymond Cohen's book traces in meticulously annotated detail the bumpy road traveled by the Christian denominations with claims to space inside the church whose foundations go back to the fourth century, to assert those claims. By David Bargal Turning over a new leaf Sometimes, Israel seems to be drunk on festivals. Not the religious kind - though there certainly are those who feel that we overdo it in that department - but rather the secular variety that celebrate the creativity of human beings. By David B. Green An unbearable urge to write In a phone conversation from his apartment on New York's Upper West Side punctuated by tongue-and-cheek Yiddishisms and Jewish geography, the act of writing - the discipline of it - is the only topic Nathan Englander is absolutely serious about. By Bari Weiss Murder, mystery and malaise Almost from the very first page, a sinister air permeates 'A Grave in Gaza,' Matt Beynon Rees' second novel featuring Omar Yussef, a Palestinian teacher turned detective. By Ina Friedman A thin line between left and right 'Liberal Fascism' should be read with caution. It's more a political project than a work of historical research. By Rinat Harash Witnesses to history Gabriel Geismar's experience binds the family narratives of Benjamin Taylor's 'The Book of Getting Even,' a quietly triumphant novel that spans the decade in which Gabriel becomes an adult - 1970-1980 - and manages to be both of that time period and very much beyond it. By Sarah Wildman The ignorant ingenue Deborah Kanafani's ambivalence about the kind of book she was writing is evident throughout 'Unveiled,' which comes across as not quite a memoir and not quite a collection of profiles of prominent Arab women. By Shoshana Kordova Life, and nothing but 'Arrack for Breakfast' presents a series of conversations conducted by author Amia Lieblich with people who come to sit in a small coffee shop, almost a mere kiosk, on the beach between Jaffa and Bat Yam, not far from the new home to which she moved from Jerusalem. By Avirama Golan I will survive Meet Lillian, who endures a pogrom, a trans-Atlanic journey, and a trek across the North American continent and the Alaskan tundra in search of her daughter. Everyone who crosses her path is changed forever - except our reviewer. By Rifka Dzodin The invaluable rebuttal In 'Vita', Josephus defends himself against fierce accusations of betrayal - to the good fortune of generations of readers. By Magen Broshi Redeeming the Jews French journalist Alfred Londres journeyed far and wide in the 1920s to investigate the unknown: the strange, alien Jewish people. By Hanna Herzig Child is father to the man With a new edition of Bruno Schulz in print, we have another opportunity to examine the sublime Polish Jewish artist who wanted more than anything to be recognized as a German writer, and who never explicitly acknowledged his Jewishness. By David Stromberg What lies beneath In recreating forgotten Palestine, Alon Hilu raises questions about the future of the region and its peoples. By Shira Stav Parable for a bygone language If Yirmi Pinkus learned the art of reproof from Mendele Moycher Sforim, there is no doubt who taught him pity: the latter's 'grandson,' Sholem Aleichem. By Benny Mer A conversation with Lucette Lagnado The author of 'The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit,' a memoir to her family's traumatic migration from Egypt to the West four decades ago, winner of this year's prestigious Sami Rohr Prize. By David B. Green More Haaretz book reviews >>> Bookmark to del.icio.us   Forgotten peace French FM: I fear distracted world may forget Mideast peace process. Settlers vs. Shin Bet Daniela Weiss: Shin Bet behind attack on left-wing advocate prof. Sternhell.   1.   book review 01:22  |  penny harow 10/07/08

Read & React Security officials: Time running out on deal for Shalit release Responses: 78 Lebanese union to sue Israel for 'claiming ownership' of falafel Responses: 120 Avi Primor: It's time for the IDF to leave the West Bank Responses: 47 The Holocaust, Tarantino-style: Jews scalping Nazis Responses: 40 Hamas: Jewish Lobby in U.S. to blame for global financial crisis Responses: 100 More Headlines 21:12 Olmert gets no firm pledge from Russia on arms sales to Iran, Syria 16:28 Hamas: 'Jewish Lobby' in U.S. to blame for global financial crisis 17:14 In surprise move, Bank of Israel cuts interest rate by 0.5 percent 19:50 VIDEO / YouTube pranksters have Hitler raving about Obama, Xbox 19:47 Ariel Sharon told 1973 probe: IDF top brass was clueless in Yom Kippur War 16:24 Dutch lawyers seek arrest of Minister Ayalon for 'war crimes' 20:30 Settlers to Barak: Don't give PA security control of Hebron 21:25 Deputy FM protests gov't delays in funding of Druze sector 20:36 Food giant Tnuva fined NIS 55m for adding silicone to milk 13:25 Israeli security officials: Time running out on Shalit deal 16:45 Televised Hamas course teaches militants how to fight the IDF 17:34 Stock markets across Arab world suffer steep losses 10:28 Burial artifact inscribed 'Son of High Priest' found near West Bank fence route 13:50 Arab MK to Dichter: Protect Arab drivers from stone hurling on Yom Kippur Previous Editions Select Day 06 oct 05 oct 03 oct 02 oct 01 oct 30 sep 29 sep 28 sep 26 sep 25 sep 24 sep 23 sep

Special Offers Advertisement Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Dial 013 for your long-distance calls and get all your money back US CITIZENS Vote for real change. Request your ballot today! Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Jewish Singles Personal Ads Find the love of your life on JDate.com Israel's Premier Real Estate Website www. israel-property.com Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved