Book description
Life in the Ya'ari family is full, complicated and often humorous,
but beyond it lies a fragile society deeply uneasy with itself and
badly scarred, with each family harbouring its own ghosts.
Ever-creative, A. B. Yehoshua's short, interwoven chapters
create a duet-like narrative which penetrates deeply into human
relationships. He taps into the psyche of the reader as he taps into
the psyche of his country, and we emerge altered by what we have read.
Yehoshua ... has been one of his country's most vital
chroniclers and critics. Ethan Bronner, The New York Times Book Review
Yehoshua has long been praised for his Faulknerian novels and
though the two rather unexceptional middle class Israeli families in
Friendly Fire lack the gothic appurtenances of the Snopeses and
Compsons, his story is not short on sound and fury. Eric Banks,
Financial Times
None of Yehoshua's books, no matter how personal, is without
political, historical and religious importance. Friendly Fire is no
exception. Haaretz
Born in Jerusalem in 1936, A. B. Yehoshua is the author of nine
novels and a collection of short stories. One of Israel's top novelists,
he has won prizes worldwide for all his novels, and in the UK was
shortlisted in 2005 for the first Man Booker International Prize. He
continues to be an outspoken critic of both Israeli and Palestinian
policies. Stuart Schoffman is an American-born journalist, educator, and
translator. A senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, he has
lived in Israel since 1988.
