Nir Baram new novel “At Night’s End” will be published in Israel on 1/5/2018

April 4, 2018EN

Nir Baram new novel “At Night’s End” will be published in Israel on 1/5/2018 by Am Oved publishing house.

A writer wakes up in a hotel room in an unfamiliar city. His clothes are muddy and he doesn’t know how long he’s been lying in bed. He came to participate in a literary festival that is long over—why is he still there? When he desperately attempts to reconstruct his lost days, he learns that he told people at the festival that his best friend had died.
Except that his friend is still alive.

This disorienting state launches the story of a profound friendship that begins in childhood and follows the intertwining life paths of two men. Over the decades, their journeys diverge and reconverge, as the imaginary worlds of their early days gradually fade but never vanish.

The protagonist, Yonatan, stays on in Mexico City, resisting the unavoidable return to his wife and infant son back home in Tel Aviv. Faced with the terrifying certainty that his closest friend, Yoel, is going to die, he struggles to preserve his sanity. But why does the impending death—which may or may not in fact happen—frighten him so much that he opts to stay in a foreign country far away from his family? And Why doesn’t he believe he can go back to Israel and save his childhood friend?

The narrative travels smoothly back and forth in time to depict a powerful friendship, its inevitable and painful dissolution, and the waning power of youthful imagination. Taking place in Israel, the events unfold under the constant shadow of animosity between Arabs and Jews, and the societal demand that boys be men. Above all, this is a universal story of family and love, friendship and fatherhood, the savage forces of memory, imagination and writing, and the life one leads after losing a loved one—a life that can still prove surprising.

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“Land without borders” in JQ Wingate literary Prize long list with Amos oz, Nicole Krauss and others.
The longlist for the 2018 JQ (Jewish Quarterly) Wingate Prize has been announced, with “identity” singled out as this year’s overriding theme. Twelve books have been selected,

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Events list in the US:
24.10, 18.00 – George Washington university
25.10, 19.00 – KGB Bar, NY.
27.10, 19.00 – The Temple, Louisville KY
30.10, 16.00 – Boston University
04.11, 18.45 – movie screening and talk “other Israel festival” NY
05.11, 16.00 – NYU, NY

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Raving reviews to Nir Barams documentary “Land without Borders”

October 10, 2017EN

“Land without Borders” made by Nir Baram and Michael Alalu reviews:

“This important movie shows that we haven’t even begun to speak about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” (Editor’s Choice, “Time Out”)

“A refreshing perspective, without moral patronizing. Baram’s honesty is unburdened by illusions. As a result, it opens a window for new approaches.” (Einav Shiff, “Yediot Aharonot”)

“An important, fascinating film that every person here should see.” (Maya Sela, “What’s Involved”, “This is Culture”)

“Lets talk about 1948!” (Ha’aretz supplement ranking committee chose “Land without Borders” as the best documentary of the year)

“A courageous, important movie that upsets familiar outlooks on the occupation.” (Gal Gabbay, “Setting Things Straight”, Channel 2)

“In a wise, dispassionate voice, Baram hears the unpleasant truths about the conflict.” (Doron Brosh, “Ma’ariv”)

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Jessica Cohen finished the translation of World Shadow (2018 publication)

October 10, 2017EN

The translator Jessica Cohen, winner of 2017 Man Booker International Prize for David Grossman’s novel “A Horse Walks Into a Bar”: finished the translation of Nir baram novel “World shadow”. In a post in Facebook she wrote about the translation
“Translating is writing. That is clear to all of us translators. And I never feel more like a writer than I do during those heart-pounding moments of anxiety as I prepare to let go and submit my work to the publisher. I’ve just done that with my 17th (!) book translation.
“World Shadow” is a long, ambitious, smart, political, personal, global, local, emotional, intellectual, unlike-anything-else novel by the hugely talented Nir Baram. It’ll take a while, but I can’t wait for this book to get out there and do its thing already!”

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Land without Borders documentary directed by Nir Baram and Michael Alalu (62 mintues) is based on Nir Baram Non fiction book “Land withour Borders (Text 2017)

Award-winning writer Nir Baram grew up in a political household. Both his father and grandfather were members of the Knesset and Ministers in the Israeli Labor Party governments. As Baram begins to lose faith in even the possibility of a two-state solution, he decides to travel throughout the West Bank to speak with the local populations on both sides of the conflict. He learns that in crucial substantive ways, the two groups don’t start from a common foundation. So how can they even participate in the same conversation? While the international focus of a two-state solution generally revolves around the “Green Line,” the average West Bank Palestinian on the street cares little about 1967 political borders when they desire the land they lost in 1948. These surprising revelations force Baram to challenge his entire political belief system and reevaluate his own hopes for a peaceful resolution to this conflict.

Sat 11/4 6:45pm JCC Manhattan
Sun 11/5 4:00pm NYU

for more details click read more

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In September 2017 Nir Baram participated in Melbourne and Brisbane writers festival to discuss his book A land without Borders” published by Text. His two events in Melbourne were sold out.

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In an Article about the most important books regarding 50 years of the 1967 war Nir Baram book received great review: “The great virtue of his book is that Baram lets his interlocutors speak for themselves : To hear it from the people who currently live in the occupied territories — 650,000 Jewish settlers and 2.7 million Palestinians — it is now as much a zero-sum game as ever. Their voices come through in A LAND WITHOUT BORDERS: My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank (Text Publishing, paper, $16.95), a wide-ranging travelogue from Nir Baram, an Israeli novelist, translated by Jessica Cohen…

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Nir Baram was interviewed by Brian Lehrer in his Radio show in WNYC Radio about ‘Land without Borders’

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“Nir Baram does what more people in the region should undertake: a grand listening tour that encompasses all sides of the conflict. The author is a good listener, too, albeit one who isn’t afraid to ask hard questions”

to read the full review click read more

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A kirkus star review for A land without Borders: “From horror to fatigue to indifference, an important look forward and back that provides a grass-roots sense that one state needs to satisfy sovereignty for all.”

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An interesting review about Good People in Times Literary Supplement
“Good People chillingly captures the terrors and tensions of life under Stalin and Hitler.”

to read the whole review click read more

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Nir Baram story in the New yorker:
“At night I used to pad up and down the dark hallways in our house and stop outside my parents’ bedroom. Bending over to squint through the keyhole, I could see my mother’s slight body huddled on the right side of the bed underneath heavy covers, her head disappearing among them. Ever since her body was consigned to the disease, my mother had been melancholy. She squabbled with fate, demanded an explanation (I’ve never harmed a soul, she insisted), and quoted the Psalm we always recited at the annual memorial service for her mother, my grandmother Sarah: “Princes have persecuted me without a cause.”

to read the whole story click read more

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Interesting and thought-provoking review in Tagesspiegel by Ulrike Baureithel, which really focused in reading the novel. “Der israelische Schriftsteller Nir Baram lädt in seinem Roman “Weltschatten” zur Tour de Force durch den internationalen Finanzkapitalismus. Mit „Weltschatten“ hat der für seine Reportagen aus den besetzten Gebieten hochgelobte Autor ein monumentales Generationenbild geschaffen.”

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The Economist with a great review on Good people:
“Not monsters or even cynics, he answers in a pacey, plot-heavy novel of dramatic events and big ideas, but gifted storytellers fuelled by ordinary motives of love, loyalty or ambition. Blessed or cursed by the “elasticity of the human soul”, they wield this suppleness of spirit as “the hidden hand that smoothed out every wrinkle in the flag of truth”

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The writer and thinker like Vladimir Vertlib reviews Barams nonfiction book (Die Presse): “Barams ambivalence between sober analysis and emotional tone, between destructive criticism of the Israeli occupation and the concern for the Israelis, identified with his country, has marked the tone of the book, and gives him the voltage and the exemplary intensity of a good reports.”

“Zwischen diesen beiden Polen – zwischen Resignation und einer, scheinbar wider alle Vernunft beschworenen Hoffnung – bewegt sich das Buch. Der Autor selbst hat bei den zahlreichen Interviews, die er auf seinen Reisen gemacht hat, stets professionelle Distanz gewahrt und ließ seine liberalkritische Haltung in manchen Kommentaren dennoch durchscheinen. Diese Ambivalenz zwischen nüchterner Analyse und Emotionalität, zwischen vernichtender Kritik an der israelischen Besatzungspolitik und der Betroffenheit eines Israelis, der sich mit seinem Land identifiziert, prägt den Ton des Buches, verleiht ihm Spannung und jene exemplarische Eindringlichkeit, die guten Reportagen eigen ist.”

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Nir Baram in “Meet the Author” in the Guardian: How do we work and live in a society that we consider unjust?

This book looks at the second world war from the perspective of two characters, Sasha and Thomas, who collaborate with Stalin and Hitler respectively. What interested you about that subject?
“In Israel, the second world war and the Holocaust are something you grow up with. At school, in the army, you sometimes feel that the Holocaust is shoved down your throat. But in literature you tend to come across the usual character types: either the bureaucrats such as Eichmann, or the highly perverse caricature of a Nazi. In contrast, I wanted to look at the role of brilliant and creative people, kind of “free spirits”, who happened to find themselves living under those regimes. Sasha, for example, may not agree with the objectives of the NKVD, but working for them provides her first chance to shine, and an opportunity to realise her talents.”

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World shadow recived great review in the German Der Freitag by lukas Latz
“Nir Baram nimmt beide Positionen ernst, zeigt ihre größten Stärken und kapitalen Schwächen und lässt offen, welche Haltung die bessere ist. Barams kraftvolle Darstellung profunder weltanschaulicher Konflikte könnte ihn auch literarisch zu einem Erben von Friedenspreisträger Amos Oz machen. Schon in dessen Werk wird sehr oft und sehr gut gestritten…”Nir Baram erzählt nicht chronologisch. Bis sich die Handlungsstränge seines Romans zu einem Bild zusammensetzen dauert es. Belohnt wird der Leser durch viele starke Bonmots und eine adäquate Erzählform.”

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Nir Baram interview with NRC

September 9, 2016EN

Nir Baram gave a substantive interview to NRC, one of Netherlands leading newspaper

“Wie zijn oplossing utopisch noemt, slaat Baram fel om de oren. „En de tweestatenoplossing is dat niet? Hoeveel dichterbij zijn we in een halve eeuw bezetting gekomen? Ik vind dat er sprake is van intellectuele luiheid bij de linkse partijen in Israël, in Europa en in Amerika, met al hun zombieachtige gepraat over twee staten.”

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Nir baram nonfiction book gets the highest grade from De Standaard the book was reviewed by JORN DE COCK
“Barams boek is in de eerste plaats voor  Israëlische  lezers,  om  heneen  blik  te  gunnen  achter  die
Muur.  Dat  maakt  dat  Een  land zonder grenzen een stuk dieper ingaat op de crisis dan de gebruikelijke
inleidingen  op  het  conflict die alles nog eens uitleggen. Voor een  buitenlandse  lezer  komt  het
uitgebreide  notenapparaat  aanhet einde van het boek handig van pas.”

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