Reviews about ‘World Shadow’ from around the World.

May 5, 2022EN

‘A real literary achievement. Surely one of the most impressive novels written in Hebrew in the past years. It is a mind-blowing epos that raises big questions about the human spirit, democracy, morals and violence.’

       Haaretz

‘A tremendous description of the evils, passions and hopes that shape the world today. One of the most ambitious novels I have ever read…You can hear in World Shadow echoes of Underworld by Don DeLillo. Echoes of rebellion…of great literature.’

       El País (Spain)

‘Some readers will feel this great novel predicted many aspects of Trump’s rise, and they would not be mistaken.’

         Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austria)

‘May be the most impressive novel that has been written about this era of discontent.’

        El Mundo (Spain)

‘The reader is captivated until the crushing end, thanks to Nir Baram’s great art…A masterpiece.’

     Deutschlandfunk (Germany)

‘A boundlessly ambitious novel. This is the Hamlet of the twenty-first century.’

      Volkskrant (Netherlands)

’For this novel, Baram deserves a place at the front line of modern literature.’

      NRC (Netherlands)

‘Baram is one of the best writers I have read in recent years.’

      Milenio (Mexico)

‘Nir Baram is the great revelation of the Hebrew language…One of the most important novels of our time. You read it and think of Balzac.’

      ABC (Mexico)

‘The best novel Baram has written so far, a brilliant literary achievement. World Shadow is asking the most important questions of our time.’

          Israel Today
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World Shadow, Nir Barams novel, will be published by ‘Text publishing House’ in the US and UK:

   “Chosen as one of the best 70 novels in the history of Israel” (Israel National Radio, Special judges panel).
 
     “chosen as one of the Best Israeli novels of the 21 century” (Mako).
    “chosen as one of the best 2 Israeli novels in the decade, 2010-2020 (Yediot Aharonot, Special panel of 25 literary critics)
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At Night’s End was chosen to the short-list of the prestigious Wingate prize’ 2022

 

 

Also chosen: Nicole Krauss’s first short story collection ‘To Be A Man’ ; ‘Letters to Camondo’ by Edmund de Waal; ‘Judaism for the World’ by Arthur Green, and 3 other books.

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“At Night’s End” by Nir Baram is Longlisted for the prestigious JQ Wingate prize.

Nicole Krauss, Nir Baram, David Grossman, Martin Puchner,  are among the nominees for the Wingate Prize for 2022 with their “powerful expressions of the diversity of Jewish experience”. The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977.

Baram’s novel was translated by Jessica Cohen, winner of the Booker award for 2017 and was published by ‘Text publishing’.

Past winners include VG Zebald, Zaidi Smith, Oliver Sachs, David Grossman and others.

Wingate doesn’t just recognise excellence in Jewish literature, it celebrates the rich diversity of Jewish life, creativity and thought. The entries this year represented that significantly. Our longlist was a real challenge to distil, as we had to choose 13 titles from some 70 entries.

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A dazzling portrait of wild youth and love on the on hand and of fatherhood and love on the other. Baram ability to crack open the nature of human existence’ the fascinating plot, the combination of Israeli reality and a world of mystery with a fantastic touch – are just part of the the book’s power. it is a contemporary and original masterpiece.

(writer and reviewer Anat Einhar, “Hebrew”, Critic choice)

A wonderful and again wonderful novel. a book you can not stop reading, and will make every reader emotional with a desire to look at its life”

(Yoav Ginai, National Radio)

A moving, surprising. exiting novel that miraculously balance reality and imagination, a must Read!”

(Noam Partom, Ynet)

“Fatherhood, friendship, love and betrayal, politics, Corona, imagination and reality are all mixed up in this wonderful and exciting novel, just read it”

(Keren Agmon, “only Books”)

 

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The World is a Rumor/ Abstract

September 9, 2021EN

          Yonatan, an Israeli author haunted by the death of his best friend, sets off on a journey with his young son. They climb a mountain on which, rumor has it, lives a man with an extraordinary talent: he can make people’s memories disappear. As it turns out, the man on the mountain has been waiting for Yonatan for a long time. 

The encounter between them motivates Yonatan to investigate a mystery connected to his friend’s death and to the great loves of his life. So instead of his memories disappearing, Yonatan’s present is invaded by his past.

            He creates rich imaginary worlds for his son, like the ones he dreamed up in his childhood, and the two immerse themselves in these worlds with great passion—perhaps too great. When the pandemic begins, Yonatan is determined to shield his son from lock-downs and isolation, and their world is taken over by imaginary play. Are they losing control? Is Yonatan bringing back demons from his past and letting them into his son’s life?

            Yonatan gradually learns more about The man from the mountain: his name is Michael, although he once had other names. He used to erase people’s memories, but he also had ways to manipulate their dreams. When it all spiraled out of control, he disappeared for many years and has only recently resurfaced.

            But Michael disappeared again, clearly hiding something from Yonathan, and Yonatan goes on his own search. In his mind he travels two decades back, to his unstable relationship with his father. He also revisits a love triangle which ended in a betrayal that cost him his best friend and the girl they both loved. Was that where everything fell apart? Only when he discovers the tower where Michael is hiding, he will know truth.

            Yonatan’s quest leads him to places he never intended to reach, and he takes his beloved son with him. The integrity of his family is threatened by the search. but it also offers hope for freedom and a healing of the fissures.

            Nir Baram has written several best-sellers (including Good People, World Shadow, and At Night’s End), and his books have been translated into many languages and are critically acclaimed in both Israel and around the world. Three of his novels were short-listed for Israel’s prestigious Sapir Prize. His latest, The World is a Rumor, plunges into the passions, fears and loves that are always with us, and tells an unsettling and heartrending story of a father’s love for his son, of parents and children, the fragility of family, reality and imagination, the burning desire for intimacy with our loved ones, and the struggle to genuinely live in the present.

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Review “The world is a rumor”

September 9, 2021EN

A dazzling portrait of wild youth and love one the one hand and of fatherhood and love on the other. Baram ability to crack open the nature of human existence’ the fascinating plot, the combination of Israeli reality and a world of mystery with a fantastic touch – are just part of the the book’s power. it is a contemporary and original masterpiece.

(writer and reviewer Anat Einhar, “Hebrew”, Critic choice)

“A wonderful and again wonderful novel. a book you can not stop reading, and will make every reader emotonal and with  desire to look at its life”

(Yoav Ginai, National Radio)

A moving, surprising. exiting novel that miraculously balance reality and imagination, a must Read!”

(Noam Partom, Ynet)

“Fatherhood, friendship, love and betrayal, politics, Corona, imagination and reality are all mixed up in this wonderful and exciting novel, just read it”

(Keren Agmon, “only Books”)

Review by the veteran critic Ran Ben-Nun. Yediot Aharonot. (29.8.2021)

“Yonathan, a writer in his early 40s, takes his son Itamar on a journey. They climb a mountain, where on the top of it: there is a man that can save him. Maybe.

Yonathan can not get rid of the memories that hunts him, he envisions all the time his best friend that committed suicide 4 years ago.

That’s how “The World is a Rumor” begins.

Yonathan askes the man from the mountain, who poses a dangerous talent, to muffle his memories, so they can be less lucid and painful. It’s not obvious that this is what he needs. But certainly, he needs a change: Yonathan is restless, angry, bursts on strangers with no reason, and it seems that the only thing he cares about is his son Itamar.

Baram goes back 20 years to the past, when after the army service – Yonathan and Yoel went to London together. Yoel at that time was in an eternal on and off relationship with Tali: their best friend from childhood and the painful part in a difficult, complicated impossible triangle between Yoel Yonathan and her. A triangle of love and betrayal that maybe led Yoel to this early death.

Baram is a magician of complicated and challenging relationships between human beings. It’s not clear why people are together or separate, but suddenly it happens – a light comes and with the light wonderful observations about people and their inner world that only Baram can describe in such a wonderful way. Clearly Baram is one of the top writers in Israel today.

In the Yonathan character, you can see the young Baram character who is sure that his first book was published only because of his father, a famous politician.

But The most important character that comes from Baram new novel is Yonathan the father, totally devoted to his son. In Barams novel fatherhood is total, existential, even spiritual, every fiber in Yonathan being is connected to this son. And when your marriage is torn apart, friendships collapse, and the world loses its meaning, all that you have is simply being a father.”

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Nir Barams new novel “The world is a rumor” was published in Israel on the 25/8/2021.

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‘At Night’s End’ will be published in Australia on 29/9/2020. Translated by Jessica Cohen – Winner of the 2017 Booker prize – and published by ‘Text publishing’. Publication in US and UK will be in early 2021.

At Night’s End is a compassionate and personal novel about an extraordinary friendship between two boys who become men haunted by a shared past. It is also a universal story of family and love, and of the power of memory and imagination.

‘A masterpiece: This book will crawl under your skin and will not let go.‘ (NRC)

‘Skilfully, Baram plunges into the world in between: between life and death, childhood, adolescence and adulthood, between being a child and being a father, love and hate, day and night, intoxication and sobriety.’ (Aargauer Zeitung)

‘Baram is the best writer in his generation with no comparison.’ (A. B. Yehoshua)

‘Baram’s novels have the flair, emotional depth, and wealth of ideas of the great 19th-century Russian authors. A complex, deeply felt but never sentimental bildungsroman…A wonderful tribute to the people dearest to him.‘ (De TiJd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Excited that “At Night End” was chosen by NRC editors as one of the best books of 2020 so far 

“This overwhelming novel by Nir Baram focuses on a friendship that has been watered down, but was once paradise. And then there is the guilt of a son towards his dead mother. It is all so recognizable. And that is exactly what makes Baram’s books so great. Baram takes you into the depths of the soul. This book will sit on your skin and will let you go quickly.”

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Barams Oscar winning documentary now with English subtitles. 

People asked us about the documentary “Land without Borders” who won the Israeli Oscar in 2018 and describes Barams journey in the West Bank.
The documentary is based on his Book. So everyone was working hard to make it available for watching on demand.

Its a documentary made with no assistance from the movies foundation, which is rare and yet more than 150000 people watched it.

in these days it possible to book a Zoom event with Baram about the movie and the book.

to see tralier click read more:

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The international literature festival “Crossing Border” invited Baram to a zoom interview with jasper Henderson about his Best Seller “At Night End” that was published in Nederland 3 month ago. The moving conversation was really about so many things – friendship, loyalty, betrayal, memory, love, writing, Hi school, 80s, Growing up in the Jerusalem where kids believe they have to be good soldiers, and more.

Now its all online here.. https://youtu.be/zXIRgQC1xuk

also by clicking read more

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Alfaguara will publish ‘At Nights End’ in Spanish

June 6, 2020EN

The Spanish prestige publishing House part of Penguin Random House will publish the novel in the Spanish speaking world in the middle of 2021.

Alfaguara also published Baram novels “Good People” and “World Shadow”

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“In Erwachen Baram unfolds a dazzling and increasingly clear and threatening mirror game that keeps the reader in suspense and on the go for 350 pages: The transition from childhood to adulthood breaks through Jonathan like an avalanche, from happiness to misfortune, from life to death…”

By Erich Klein in Ex Libris magazine: Worth to listen to the whole 8 minutes Radio Review here.

to listen to the whole review in ORF- Austria National Radio click read more

 

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“Awakening” is a strong autobiographical novel. and is therefore very different from Baram’s novels “Good People” and “World Shadow’.

“Skilfully, Baram plunges into the world in between: between life and death, childhood, adolescence and adulthood, between being a child and being a father, love and hate, day and night, intoxication and sobriety.

Jonathan’s professional world is also shaped by this duality , when the writer creates a new world between reality and fantasy, draws from memories and yet changes them beyond recognition, sometimes even destroys them to create something new.”

to read the whole review click read more

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Nir Baram gave n interview to the dutch daily newspaper Volkskrant:

“The search for answers has resulted in At the End of the Night, Baram’s third novel translated into Dutch. It is a coming-of-age story and requiem in one. No prose that you surf over, but that you drag into the depths. It makes him “the best writer of his generation,” said writer A.B. Yehoshua, one of the patriarchs of Israeli literature.”

to read the full interview click read more

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Nir Baram in an interview to ‘Neuen Zürcher Zeitung’ about “Erwachen” (The German translation to “At Night’s End) and also talks about Corona and isolation, death, childhood and imagination, writing, fatherhood and how close the protagonist of “At Night End” to his experiences.

«Du weisst nicht, was im Inneren des Menschen vorgeht, der neben dir steht.» Nir Baram versucht, dieses Rätsel zu lösen

Zwei tiefe Verlusterfahrungen verarbeitet der israelische Autor in seinem neuen Roman. Er spricht über den Blick auf die Vergangenheit, die sich ständig verändert – und über die Gefahr, sich in ihr zu verlieren.

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‘At Night’s End’ is on the Best sellers list in Nederland in NRC Newspaper.

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‘At Nights End’ in the Best-Sellers list of NRC newspaper. The second edition of the novel was already printed. In Israel the novel was number 1 in the best seller list had had 6 editions so far.

to see full list in NRC click read more.

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The novel tells very precisely and powerfully about instinctively executed liberation strikes as well as life and writing crises. The narrator wants to find “a grain of truth” and make it tangible. He reached his goal.” ( Sigrid Brinkmann, Deutschlandfunk Kultur)

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/nir-baram-erwachen-lebenskrisen-und-befreiungsschlaege.950.de.html?dram:article_id=472050

“Erwachen is hard stuff, told powerfully, with a tendency to become breathless, sometimes hyperventilating. And also borne by the counter-tendency of calm storytelling, the development of intimate scenes: Nir Baram has an excellent feeling for the right mix of tension and relaxation, the play from near and far and for sudden tipping moments.” ( Frank Keil, juedische Allgemeine)

to read the full review click read more

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“This book will crawl under your skin and will not let go”

The cover of the prestige NRC books supplement, one of Nederlands leading and most popular newspapers, was dedicated to “At Night’s End”. The headline: “Paradise in the Desert: again Nir Baram has written world literature” followed by a brilliant 5 stars review by Michel krielaars : the editor of the books supplement.

“In his new overwhelming novel, the great Israeli writer Nir Baram takes you to the depths of his soul . This book will crawl under your skin and will not let go”

“Again it results in an intriguing story, that excels in the deep psychology of the main characters and the deft composition. Again, Nir Baram has written world literature.”

“In the intensity in which Baram has written the novel and in the merciless manner in which he sets up the distant family ties, he literary equals Amos Oz, who also wrote about a mother who was inaccessible to her son in his autobiographical novel “A story of love and darkness”. It explains why Oz recognized Barams literary greatness when he read “Good People.”

to read the full review click read more

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