Amos oz autobiography featuring

By Robert Alter
Published September 26,
pages

“A worthy introduction to Oz” —Publishers Weekly

An intimate portrait illuminating the life and work of Amos Oz, the award-winning Israeli writer and activist

Amos Oz (–) was one of Israel’s most prolific and prominent writers, as well as a regular contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Amos oz autobiography featuring john Oz's parents were multilingual his father claimed he could read in 16 or 17 languages, while his mother spoke four or five languages, but could read in seven or eight but neither was comfortable speaking in Hebrew, which was adopted as the official language of Israel. During the Holocaust , some of his family members were killed in Lithuania. Oz later studied philosophy and literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Authority control databases.

He was the author of dozens of novels, essay collections, and novellas written between and shortly before his death.

In this first published biography of Oz, the celebrated translator, literary critic, and biblical scholar Robert Alter explores Oz’s relationship with his family, beginning with the suicide of his mother, Fania Klausner, when he was twelve years old, and goes on to review his time in Kibbutz Hulda, which he entered at fourteen following his separation from his father, Arieh Klausner; his family’s right-wing Zionism; his writing career; his activism in support of a pluralistic Israel; and his work as an international lecturer.

In examining Oz’s life and work, Alter brings together testimony from Oz and his circle, as well as close readings of his central works, to present the inner world and public persona of Amos Oz.

Robert Alter is professor of the Graduate School and emeritus professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is the award-winning author of two dozen books, including his three-volume translation of the Hebrew Bible. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

Author photograph © Peg Skarpinski