AMOS OZ (1939-2018) was born in Jerusalem. He was the recipient of
the Prix Femina, the Frankfurt Peace Prize, the Goethe Prize, the
Primo Levi Prize, and the National Jewish Book Award, among other
international honors. His work, including A Tale of Love and
Darkness and In the Land of Israel, has been translated into
forty-four languages.
NICHOLAS DE LANGE is a professor at the University of Cambridge and
a renowned translator. He has translated Amos Oz's work since the
1960s.
Short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize
A New York Times Editors' Choice
New York Times, Paperback Row "[A] magnificent novel... Oz pitches
the book's heartbreak and humanism perfectly from first page to
last, as befits a writer who understands how vital a political role
a novelist can play."--New York Times Book Review "In this novel of
nineteen-sixties Jerusalem, Shmuel Ash, lovelorn graduate student
and lukewarm socialist, abandons his thesis ('Jewish Views of
Jesus') to care for a frail, elderly Zionist living in a funeral
villa. There he meets a cynical beauty who lost both her father and
husband in the mid-century wars, backroom and battlefield, that
defined the contours of Israeli statehood. The novel has a clear
message; as Shmuel says, 'All the power in the world cannot
transform someone who hates you into someone who likes you.' But Oz
tempers this didactic edge by making Shmuel a hapless figure--with
walking stick, inhalers, and baby-powdered beard--unimpressive to
the aristocratic recluses he's stumbled among."--The New Yorker,
"Briefly Noted" "A novel of ideas...Beautifully translated by
Nicholas de Lange."--New York Review of Books "Even an annus
horribilis can be redeemed if it contains a new Amos Oz
novel."--The Forward "An intellectual biography of Judas, a tender
narrative of love and heartbreak, and a thoughtful consideration of
the stakes and limits of Israeli politics."--The Christian Century
"Oz's prose, as captured in English by de Lange, illuminates an
exquisite coming-of-age romance that also manages to comment on the
origins of Zionism, the perception of the Israeli left and what it
truly means to be a traitor."--Jewish Telegraphic Agency "Like Oz's
nonfiction "A Tale of Love and Darkness," "Judas" grapples with
big, historical matters for which there are no simple answers: the
founding of Israel and the founding of Christianity. Both remain
rich subjects to explore today."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Best
Books of 2016" "A scintillating novel...Many-layered,
thought-provoking and - in its love story - delicate as a
chrysalis, this is 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."--The Forward "Judas
is a vibrant specimen of a nearly extinct species, the novel of
ideas...A fascinating coming-of-age story."--San Francisco
Chronicle "The novel gives a finely vivid and sympathetic picture
of a Jerusalem (and an Israel) that has largely disappeared...This
book is compassionate as well as painfully provocative, a
contribution to some sort of deeper listening to the dissonances
emerging from deep within the politics and theology of Israel and
Palestine."--New Statesman "A very absorbing addition to [Oz's]
remarkable oeuvre."--The Guardian "A masterpiece: command of the
word, mastery of construct, the ability to stimulate all the senses
of the reader."--La Repubblica "Challenging, complex and strangely
compelling... The ideas at the novel's centre have great vitality
and force. The philosophical passages bristle with linguistic
energy...vividly conveyed in Nicholas de Lange's
translation."--Spectator "A [big] beautiful novel...Funny, wise,
and provoking."--The Times "JUDAS is a great novel that only Oz
could have written...perhaps his finest work. Whether or not it is
his swansong, it should win Amos Oz the ultimate
accolade."--Standpoint Magazine "After almost two dozen books that
track changes in both heart and state with untiring strength and
subtlety, the Israeli master has delivered one of the boldest of
all his works...Nicholas de Lange, Oz's distinguished translator,
steers these virtuoso transitions between debate and domesticity
with unerring skill...Oz can imagine, and inhabit, treachery of
every stripe. But he keeps faith with the art of
fiction."--Financial Times "[It is] rich in material to grapple
with. Oz engages with urgent questions while retaining his right as
a novelist to fight shy of answers: it's a mark of his achievement
that the result isn't frustrating but tantalising."--Daily
Telegraph "Earnestly bedded in Israeli history and politics, Oz's
novel fights to suggest that sometimes the so-called traitors might
be heroes."--Sunday Times "Mingling with compassion and provocation
as Oz explores betrayal, war and desire...He'll no doubt be
overlooked for the Nobel Prize yet again next month - this novel
shows just how ludicrous that is."--Mail on Sunday "Through the
story of one young man at a crossroads, Oz presents
thought-provoking ideas about traitors, a moving lament for the
cost of Israeli-Arab conflict, and a heartfelt call for
compassion."--Publishers Weekly "Oz widely considered Israel's
greatest living writer...is the equal of Kundera in depicting the
kind of love that is accompanied more by sighs of impatience and
reproval than of desire satisfied. Lovely, though with a doleful
view of the possibilities of peace, love, and understanding,
whether among nations or within households."--Kirkus
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