A Tale of Love and Darkness.

OZ, Amos.

$500.00

Item Number: 107479

New York: Harcourt, Inc, 2004.

First American edition of “one of the most enchanting and deeply satisfying books”(The New Republic). Octavo, original boards. Boldly signed by Amos Oz on a University of the Negev bookplate with a portrait of David Ben-Gurion. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Claudine G. Mansour. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas De Lange.

A 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. "[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 Yorker). It went on to win The National Jewish Book Award. It is the basis for the 2015 Israeli film directed by and starring Natalie Portman.