| Author: | Yoram Kaniuk, Barbara Harshav | ISBN: | 9781632060938 |
| Publisher: | Restless Books | Publication: | September 7, 2016 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Yoram Kaniuk, Barbara Harshav |
| ISBN: | 9781632060938 |
| Publisher: | Restless Books |
| Publication: | September 7, 2016 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
DESCRIPTION
In Between Life and Death, famed Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk (“one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western World” —New York Times) describes the four months during which he lay unconscious in a Tel Aviv hospital, hovering between the world of the living and that of the dead. With his unique blend of playfulness and fearlessness, Kaniuk attempts to penetrate his own lost consciousness and understand what led him to fight for his life with such desperate stubbornness. With rare sincerity and great courage, Kaniuk goes back to his own death throes and reprieve, as well as to the waystations of his life. The story shifts between memory and illusion, imagination and testimony. Kaniuk inquires into the place of death in society, the human lust for life and relationships between human beings, among whom we find soldiers in battle, friends and family. Events and people—some real, some not—blend into a vast fresco, a larger-than-life story about life itself. Kaniuk also writes about the Jewish people, the Holocaust survivors in his childhood neighborhood, heroic stories and battles on which he was raised and the 1948 War of Independence in which he fought. This book, in which the author announces his rebirth at the age of seventy-four, is the final literary testament of one of the world’s greatest overlooked writers.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Yoram Kaniuk (1930–2013) was born in Tel Aviv and took part in Israel's War of Independence in 1948. A painter, journalist, and theater critic, he was best known as a novelist. His 29 books include The Acrophile (1960), Himmo, King of Jerusalem (1968), Adam Resurrected (1971), Rockinghorse (1977), Confessions of a Good Arab (1984), His Daughter (1987), Commander of the Exodus (1999), The Last Jew (2006), 1948 (2010), and Between Life and Death, and have been translated into twenty languages. He won the Bialik Prize, the French Prix de Droits de l'Homme, the Israeli President's Prize, the Newman Prize, and the Sapir Prize for Literature.
Barbara Harshav has been translating works from French, German, Hebrew and Yiddish for over twenty years and has currently published over forty books of translation including works of poetry, drama, fiction, philosophy, economics, sociology, and history.
PRAISE
“A stunning tale. Nothing suits Kaniuk's writing like this semi-consciousness that is conducive to a free association of images and sensations… Of this dark tale, Kaniuk has said that with the exception of the Book of Job, it is the funniest text ever written about death… In Between Life and Death, laughter is present everywhere: in his self-mockery, in his ironic sketches of his fellow men, in the surreal situations he describes, and the sometimes outrageous shortcuts he permits himself.”
—Le Monde des livres
“Kaniuk's Between Life and Death is a unique piece of travel literature, a powerfully eloquent text which takes the reader into a land, which is at once a no-man's-land and yet unmistakably Kaniuk-land… Kaniuk has proved once again that he is not only the most outlandish and the most radical among Israel's authors, but also the youngest and the most courageous.”
—Kulturzeit (Zeit)
“Kaniuk’s best novel to date… The author captures a rare voice, a tone which is elegiac, full of rhythm, paratactic, and irresistible in its pull… It achieves excellence and transparent wonder.”
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Kaniuk's characteristic, unmistakable style of narrating and his passionate, fascinating language make this memoir a gripping reading experience”
—Die Welt
“It's amazing to realize that even in one’s terminal moments, a person can still possess the most extraordinary power of thought and imagination, which carries him on mysterious wings to the distant and most hidden realms of his life… The soul of this productive, flowing, stormy Tel Aviv writer, who may be the very last witness to document the landscape of old Tel Aviv and the crumbling of the Israeli dream, not only refuses to depart but clings to the body in a final leap.”
—Haaretz
“Yoram Kaniuk’s amazingly courageous book describes his journey from life to death and back during his year of illness, casting himself before the reader, as only Kaniuk can, without mask, disguise or shame.”
—Maariv
“This book is a portrayal of the body's deterioration, of death, but also of great beauty, great laughter; a portrayal of life and vigor, of the paradox of a man who sees life as it is and yet insists on staying alive.”
—Yedioth Tel Aviv
“How can one even review the final work of a writer as rewarding, innovative and rebellious as Kaniuk? For Between Life and Death is more than just another excellent book. Its appearance is an unusual, extraordinary and rare event for the readers of one of the greatest authors writing in Hebrew today. To me, Kaniuk’s achievement is inconceivable and awe-inspiring: at the age of 77, with a broken body, after his soul almost parted from this life, he managed to pull himself together for a short while, get back to his writing desk and recount his near-death experience… The book is very easy to read, the writing is skilful and you cannot stop turning the pages… an amazing appetite for life, fabulous untamed humor, and no sacred cows.”
—Time Out
“You may love Kaniuk or not, but you certainly cannot avoid recognizing his style! A raw flow of words and associations that are almost without editing, that will not stand for editing… as polished and smooth to the touch as sand paper… This book is no different in style, but the circumstances in which it was written add an additional stirring quality; it blows your mind out, punches you in the stomach.”
—Haaretz
“Kaniuk ruthlessly settles the scores with himself in this book ("The history of my life is a pointless event which I have tried to consolidate with meaning")… Absolute sincerity is like a razor coated in chocolate – the reader must taste both… This is a beautiful piece because it is written in the best of Kaniuk's style, moving from exposed realism to delusion, from self-flagellation to defiance, from mean cynicism to heartrending sentimentality…Once the nightmare encounters language, it becomes aesthetics.… Kaniuk compromises all 'respectability' and this concession turns into poetry.”
—Makor Rishon
“Between Life and Death is a book with great beauty and a confessional vitality… the beauty lies in the sketch-like poetic writing.”
—Ynet
“Kaniuk manages to articulate what seems to be the final will of one of our greatest writers… This is not an easy book, but it offers great comfort, that arises from coping with his long, broken, polished and honed sentences and taking great pleasure in them.”
—Ha'Ir
“Kaniuk at his very best… the courage to look directly at everything, even death, without giving up on a touch of cynical humor… A sad book written by a man who soberly examines life and death, and yet offers gleams of light through a great love story and the possibility of dreaming, writing and creating.”
—Epoch Times
DESCRIPTION
In Between Life and Death, famed Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk (“one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western World” —New York Times) describes the four months during which he lay unconscious in a Tel Aviv hospital, hovering between the world of the living and that of the dead. With his unique blend of playfulness and fearlessness, Kaniuk attempts to penetrate his own lost consciousness and understand what led him to fight for his life with such desperate stubbornness. With rare sincerity and great courage, Kaniuk goes back to his own death throes and reprieve, as well as to the waystations of his life. The story shifts between memory and illusion, imagination and testimony. Kaniuk inquires into the place of death in society, the human lust for life and relationships between human beings, among whom we find soldiers in battle, friends and family. Events and people—some real, some not—blend into a vast fresco, a larger-than-life story about life itself. Kaniuk also writes about the Jewish people, the Holocaust survivors in his childhood neighborhood, heroic stories and battles on which he was raised and the 1948 War of Independence in which he fought. This book, in which the author announces his rebirth at the age of seventy-four, is the final literary testament of one of the world’s greatest overlooked writers.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Yoram Kaniuk (1930–2013) was born in Tel Aviv and took part in Israel's War of Independence in 1948. A painter, journalist, and theater critic, he was best known as a novelist. His 29 books include The Acrophile (1960), Himmo, King of Jerusalem (1968), Adam Resurrected (1971), Rockinghorse (1977), Confessions of a Good Arab (1984), His Daughter (1987), Commander of the Exodus (1999), The Last Jew (2006), 1948 (2010), and Between Life and Death, and have been translated into twenty languages. He won the Bialik Prize, the French Prix de Droits de l'Homme, the Israeli President's Prize, the Newman Prize, and the Sapir Prize for Literature.
Barbara Harshav has been translating works from French, German, Hebrew and Yiddish for over twenty years and has currently published over forty books of translation including works of poetry, drama, fiction, philosophy, economics, sociology, and history.
PRAISE
“A stunning tale. Nothing suits Kaniuk's writing like this semi-consciousness that is conducive to a free association of images and sensations… Of this dark tale, Kaniuk has said that with the exception of the Book of Job, it is the funniest text ever written about death… In Between Life and Death, laughter is present everywhere: in his self-mockery, in his ironic sketches of his fellow men, in the surreal situations he describes, and the sometimes outrageous shortcuts he permits himself.”
—Le Monde des livres
“Kaniuk's Between Life and Death is a unique piece of travel literature, a powerfully eloquent text which takes the reader into a land, which is at once a no-man's-land and yet unmistakably Kaniuk-land… Kaniuk has proved once again that he is not only the most outlandish and the most radical among Israel's authors, but also the youngest and the most courageous.”
—Kulturzeit (Zeit)
“Kaniuk’s best novel to date… The author captures a rare voice, a tone which is elegiac, full of rhythm, paratactic, and irresistible in its pull… It achieves excellence and transparent wonder.”
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Kaniuk's characteristic, unmistakable style of narrating and his passionate, fascinating language make this memoir a gripping reading experience”
—Die Welt
“It's amazing to realize that even in one’s terminal moments, a person can still possess the most extraordinary power of thought and imagination, which carries him on mysterious wings to the distant and most hidden realms of his life… The soul of this productive, flowing, stormy Tel Aviv writer, who may be the very last witness to document the landscape of old Tel Aviv and the crumbling of the Israeli dream, not only refuses to depart but clings to the body in a final leap.”
—Haaretz
“Yoram Kaniuk’s amazingly courageous book describes his journey from life to death and back during his year of illness, casting himself before the reader, as only Kaniuk can, without mask, disguise or shame.”
—Maariv
“This book is a portrayal of the body's deterioration, of death, but also of great beauty, great laughter; a portrayal of life and vigor, of the paradox of a man who sees life as it is and yet insists on staying alive.”
—Yedioth Tel Aviv
“How can one even review the final work of a writer as rewarding, innovative and rebellious as Kaniuk? For Between Life and Death is more than just another excellent book. Its appearance is an unusual, extraordinary and rare event for the readers of one of the greatest authors writing in Hebrew today. To me, Kaniuk’s achievement is inconceivable and awe-inspiring: at the age of 77, with a broken body, after his soul almost parted from this life, he managed to pull himself together for a short while, get back to his writing desk and recount his near-death experience… The book is very easy to read, the writing is skilful and you cannot stop turning the pages… an amazing appetite for life, fabulous untamed humor, and no sacred cows.”
—Time Out
“You may love Kaniuk or not, but you certainly cannot avoid recognizing his style! A raw flow of words and associations that are almost without editing, that will not stand for editing… as polished and smooth to the touch as sand paper… This book is no different in style, but the circumstances in which it was written add an additional stirring quality; it blows your mind out, punches you in the stomach.”
—Haaretz
“Kaniuk ruthlessly settles the scores with himself in this book ("The history of my life is a pointless event which I have tried to consolidate with meaning")… Absolute sincerity is like a razor coated in chocolate – the reader must taste both… This is a beautiful piece because it is written in the best of Kaniuk's style, moving from exposed realism to delusion, from self-flagellation to defiance, from mean cynicism to heartrending sentimentality…Once the nightmare encounters language, it becomes aesthetics.… Kaniuk compromises all 'respectability' and this concession turns into poetry.”
—Makor Rishon
“Between Life and Death is a book with great beauty and a confessional vitality… the beauty lies in the sketch-like poetic writing.”
—Ynet
“Kaniuk manages to articulate what seems to be the final will of one of our greatest writers… This is not an easy book, but it offers great comfort, that arises from coping with his long, broken, polished and honed sentences and taking great pleasure in them.”
—Ha'Ir
“Kaniuk at his very best… the courage to look directly at everything, even death, without giving up on a touch of cynical humor… A sad book written by a man who soberly examines life and death, and yet offers gleams of light through a great love story and the possibility of dreaming, writing and creating.”
—Epoch Times
