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

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.

“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.

Nir Barams new novel “The world is a Rumor” Hit number 1 in the Best sellers list.

“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.”

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

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:

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.

“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

“The wonder kid of Israeli literature has become a man and now has the maturity to also write grippingly about matters close to him: the ill-fated friendship between two boys, the love for a girl, the death of a mother.

His deft touch, his brilliance and his sovereign outlook on Israel, Palestine and the people around him, we already knew about from his novels Good People and World Shadow.

Now he has written a great novel of compassion.”

(Review in HUMO. Jeroen Maris)

“Baram’s novels have the flair, emotional depth and wealth of ideas of the great 19^th century Russian authors. A complex, deeply felt but never sentimental Bildungsroman… A wonderful tribute to people dearest to him.”

First review for “At Nights End” translation to Dutch in the Belgian daily newspaper De Tijd written by Jan Dertaelen

A.B Yehoshua : “Baram is the best writer in his generation with no comparison.”

Yehoshua (82) Israel most legendary writer today, also said in An interview in Italy: “Nir Baram is the best writer of his generation”

He Added in Israel: “I saw this a long time ago. He is not a writer of one or three or seven chords, he is a writer of so many different abilities.

“It’s simply amazing when I think about the differences in his novels, between the apocalyptic Remaker of Dreams and the lucid historical novel Good People, and then he changed everything through the different plots in World Shadow, and then in At Night’s End he wrote such a painful, personal story full of cruelty and emotion and brilliant insights about life and death and childhood.”

Watch it by clicking read more starting minute :20.00

from Nir Barams 4 novels: 3 were shortlisted to the “Sapir Prize” the most prestigious literary prize in Israel: “The Remaker of Dreams”, “Good people” and “At night’s End”

“Land without borders” the documentary film directed by Nir Baram and Michael Alalu and based on Nir Barams book had won the Israeli Oscar (The Ophir Award) for best documentary movie for 2017.  It is quite an achievement for such a controversial and independent film that was also made in 5 month without any assistance for all the Israeli movie funds. Until now more than 50000 people watch the movie in Israel.

Click read more to  see the moment the movie was announced as winner and Nir Baram speech

Am Oved publishing House has publish in Haaretz literary section a one page advisement with just some of the great Reviews “At Nights End” has received.

“Baram’s most fascinating and moving book… A Beautiful and wonderful Novel.”

(Esti Adivi Shoshan, Ha’aretz)

“A spectacular accomplishment by one of the most wonderful Hebrew writers.”

(Alona Kimchi, Israel Today)

“The combination of honesty and lies, which the novel adapts from the tragic pact between the two boys, allows the words to accrue, to turn into pictures and scenes, into fine prose.”

(Yoni Livneh, Yediot Aharonot)

“A Very good novel… Everything is described with an honesty that lacks malice, under whose feet life’s moments of beauty are never trampled… One might say : Virtuosic.”

(Eran Horowitz, Walla!)

“Baram’s best novel. A wonderful and shocking book about the inability to talk, about a reality devoid of meaning, and about literature as the only way to live.”

(Maya Sela, Kan TV network)

“An impressive, profound, accurate book that touches the nerve-endings of emotion.”

(A.B. Yehoshua, Ha’aretz)

“A beautiful and sensitive novel. A complex and delicate relationship that begins in childhood and stretches out over many years.”

(Ayelet Klein Cohen, Israel Today)

“A rare book in Israel’s literary landscape… Depicts the past in the most profound way without a shred of romanticizing.”

(Dror Mishani, Maariv)

“One of the most beautiful bildungsroman books I have read. A novel about a profound and moving friendship, about pain and about life… Rush out to read it.”

(Keren Agmon, Saloona)

“In my opinion this is Baram’s finest book.”

(Kobi Meidan, Kan TV network)

“A novel that is at times poetry and at times a cutting wind… Only on truly rare occasions, with the same commitment and hunger, as in this unique book, do we stand facing ourselves, facing life, without lying.”

(Author Leah Aini)

“Literary criticism must answer one simple question: is the book good, and why? This is worth reiterating when approaching a novel like this one, which has only just emerged on the contemporary literary scene and has already garnered universal praise. Is this book good, then? Yes, it is good, even very good. But mostly, it is readable. Its style is uniform and clear and its insights are refreshing, at times cruel, but never descend into sentimental or histrionic confessions. Baram’s honesty is not cruel, and life’s moments of beauty are not trampled beneath its feet. Nevertheless, the book does contain plenty of grief, tedium, sorrow and decay. Yes, it is a novel whose range of emotions and conditions is remarkably broad–one might even say, virtuosic.”

Review in Walla by Eran Horowiz.

To read the full review click read more

Nir Baram gave a substantive interview to Haaretz about his new novel and many other issues.

An Acclaimed Israeli Novelist Calls for a Moral Revolution

Nir Baram, whose new novel, ‘At Night’s End,’ is his most personal work yet, talks about the death of his mother and the suicide of his best friend, and what he has learned from interviewing settlers and Palestinians

At the age of 42, Nir Baram has already achieved the status of a leading Israeli writer. He is exceptional in the breadth and complex structure of his novels, whose plots unfold in different time dimensions, are mediated by means of multiple narrators and address political, moral and social issues.

Baram’s new Hebrew-language novel, “Yekitzah” (English title: “At Night’s End”; Am Oved Publishers), is his first personal work of fiction. It was preceded by “The Remaker of Dreams” (2006), “Good People” (2010) and “World Shadow” (2013). With their panoplies of characters, diverse locales and range of periods, those three novels recall Russian novels or other classical works, though with the addition of Baram’s distinctive style, rife with descriptions and metaphors….

to read the whole interview click read more

“One of the best coming of age novels I have ever read. A beautiful novel that describes the journey of a boy into adolescence in the midst of life’s turmoil – with the threatening progress of his mother’s disease, his longing for his estranged brother and his busy father, and above all his friendship with his best friend from childhood until they are both grown men.”

Review in Salona by Keren Agmon

The great Israeli  writer A.B Yehoshua about “At Night’s Eed: “One of the best coming of age novels I have read in years. Beautiful, touching, written with the integrity of a true writer. An unforgettable story of love, friendship, family and death.”

Yehoshua is the winner of numerous international prizes, The New York Times called him the “Israeli Faulkner”

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.

“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,

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!”

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

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…

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

Click read more to listen

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.”

to read the whole review click read more

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

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

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”

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.”

to read the whole interview click read more

Review about World Shadow by Antje Deistler in Deutschlandfunk:

“In präziser, dichter Prosa widmet sich Nir Baram dem ausufernden Thema “Globalisierung”. Und dass daraus nicht die abgegriffen-sprichwörtliche schwere Kost, sondern ein auf höchst intelligente Weise unterhaltsamer Roman geworden ist, hat mit den glänzenden Fähigkeiten des 40-jährigen Schriftstellers zu tun. Stellen Sie sich also eher einen Goldbarren vor als einen Backstein.”

“Dabei will Baram weniger erklären als Fragen aufwerfen. Vieles bleibt absichtlich vage, dunkel und so undurchsichtig wie die vernetzte, globalisierte Welt selbst. Keiner blickt mehr durch, das große Ganze versteht niemand in diesem Buch, und dem Leser geht es konsequenterweise oft genauso. Dass man trotzdem, oder gerade deshalb, gefesselt bis zum niederschmetternden Ende weiterliest, ist der großen Kunst von Nir Baram zu verdanken.”

To read full review click read more

This is maybe the most profound review about “The land beyond the mountains” (Im Land der Verzweiflung) so Far which was written by the prominent Palestinian Writer Ala Hlehel, one of the most important voices in the Palestinian society.

“Documentary literature is supposed to work against this type of writing: To the greatest degree possible, it should nullify the personal desires of the writer, and strive to construct an “objective” reality. Baram may not be 100 percent dedicated to this premise, but he certainly succeeds in providing a stage for that sort of reality, where it (the reality) features as the main protagonist, constructed from situations, interviews, monologues, inner thoughts and descriptions. He also dispenses with the pretense of being an objective journalist, and succeeds in maintaining his artistic style with a clear, characteristic technique. This is one of the book’s major achievements.”

To read the whole article click read more or go to
https://www.facebook.com/BaramNir/posts/1133120360066914

World Shadow was chosen as one of the recommended novels by the editorial team of the ZDF- “Das Literarische Quartett”
“Nir Baram gilt als große Entdeckung der hebräischen Literatur. Zu Recht… Spannend wie ein Polit-Thriller kritisiert dieser Roman die globale Gier nach Geld und ruft zum Gegenentwurf auf.”

3 months after publication the critically acclaimed Non-fiction book by Nir Baram which dominated the best-sellers list in the past 10 weeks is again number 1 in the Best-sellers list.

First review for Good people in Australia was published in the national newspaper “The Australian” by the known reviewer Helen Elliott :”This is not a flawless novel but it is tremendous. I read it in two sittings and I learned a lot. How does a man in his early 30s know how to write like this?”

to read the full review click: read more

Nir Baram’s first Nonfiction book, which describes his one-year journey in the West bank and East Jerusalem will be published in Hebrew this February by Am Oved publishing house, and then later that month in Germany by Hanser Verlag: (“Im Land der Verzweiflung”). Baram began his journey a couple of months before the war in Gaza (summer 2014) and finished it in the end of 2015 after the new wave of violence erupts. Some of the chapters were published in Haaretz newspaper.

Baram meets a variety of people over the course of this journey: Palestinian-Israeli citizens trapped behind the Separation Wall in Jerusalem, a real no man’s land where neighborhoods have no municipal rule; children living in Kibbutz Nirim who experienced the war in Gaza, the rockets raining down on their homes; young Palestinians, the close friends of the Palestinian boy who was murdered by Jews. He experiences things like being held-up at occupation checkpoints with Palestinian laborers; meeting ex-prisoners from Hamas who have started a Hebrew language school in Ramallah, and ex-prisoners from Fatah who spent years detained in Israeli jails and who are now promoting a new peace initiative. He gets into a secluded settlers’ stronghold in the West Bank, and near Nablus he comes across two Palestinian boys tied up by the side of the road after allegedly trying to stab Israeli soldiers, only to find that the truth is something entirely different.

As the reportage is being written, both major and minor events take place throughout region: riots in the Temple Mount, the abduction of three Jewish boys, the murder of an Arab boy in Jerusalem, the war in Gaza, the building of a new Palestinian city, elections in Israel, a new wave of violence. Baram returns time and again to Jerusalem, the city where he was born and raised, discovering a huge, sprawling city that stretches to include places he’d never even heard of as a boy; a city where a hushed civil war is in full swing.

World shadow publisher in The Netherlands and Belgium Released a cool and short trailer with many reviews: 5 stars in Nrc, 5 stars in Volkskrant, 5 stars in De Standaard, 4 stars in De morgen.

to watch click read more

de Volskatrat, one of The Netherlands most important newspapers, also publish a 5 stars review about world shadow: “An ambitious novel without borders. This is Hamlet of the 21st Century.”

to read full review online press: read more

In a long one page review “world Shadow” receives 5 stars (the highest rate) in NRC book supplement. The review was written by the editor of the supplement Michel Krielaars:
“After ‘Good People’ Baram, the best young writer in Israel, proves his telnet once again with an overwhelming novel. As soon as you have finished World Shadow, you seriously wonder how it is possible a world strike hasn’t broken out in the real world, this is how shocked you are about the perverse workings of the system which Baram confronts you with. After finishing this brilliant written and Frighteningly urgent novel you are convinced something drastically has to change in our society dominated by hunger for money and power. For this fact alone Baram deserves a place in the front line of modern literature”

to read the whole review press read more

Nir Baram’s one year journey in the occupied West Bank which documented in the reportage “walking the green line” (Haaretz newspaper) finished in the Palestinian village of Bartta with these words: “In a deeper sense, we need to acknowledge the fact that the situation will not change as a result of a peace deal in the Camp David or Geneva style, and that the problem does not lie in plans for an agreement. Indeed, there are plenty of creative plans, some of which were discussed in this series. In order to create the conditions that are required for a solution of the conflict, in order for us to be able to address all the possible “solutions,” a moral upheaval is required within Israeli society, based on the acceptance of one simple principle: whether in one state, two states or a confederation, Jew and non-Jew must be equal in all respects.The Jewish-Israeli propaganda machinery is dedicated to undercutting that principle, to turning it into a fantastical whisper of the naive. But that is the principle – not two states or one state – that must never be compromised.”