Yoram Kaniuk

A whirlwind of art, music, and lust, Life on Sandpaper is Yoram Kaniuk's overwhelming autobiographical novel detailing his years as a young painter in the New York of the '50s. Wounded and alienated, a war veteran at the age of nineteen, Kaniuk arrives in Greenwich Village at its peak period of artistic creativity, and finds his way among such giants as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Willem de Kooning, and Frank Sinatra. In terse prose, inspired by the associative and breathless drive of bebop, Kaniuk's memories race between the ecstatic devotion of his beloved Harlem jazz clubs, through the ideological spats of the dying Yiddish world of the Lower East Side, to the volcanic gush of passion, pain, art, dance, alcohol, and drugs that was Greenwich Village. Kaniuk's stories roll and tumble here with hypnotic urgency, as if this were his last opportunity to remember, and tell, before all is obliterated.

Life on Sandpaper

Spared from the gas chamber in order to entertain thousands of his fellow Jews on the way to their deaths, Adam Stein, a former circus clown, now lives at a Negev desert asylum populated only by Holocaust survivors, where he struggles to cope in a mad world in which the border between sanity and madness has been forever blurred. Reprint.

Adam Resurrected

His Daughter (Paladin Books)

Part Jewish and part Arab, Yosef Rosenzweig/Shehara is torn by the conflict between two peoples, and he comes to realize now much political events shape one's life, regardless of private aspirations

A Novel

Confessions of a Good Arab

His Daughter

"Sixty years after fighting in Israel's War of Independence, Yoram Kaniuk tries to remember what exactly did and did not happen in his time as a teenage soldier in the Palmach. The result is a touchingly poignant and hauntingly beautiful memoir that the author himself considers a work of fiction, for what is memory but one's own story about the past. Eschewing self-righteousness in favor of self-criticism, Kaniuk's book, winner of the 2010 Sapir Prize for Literature, is the tale of a younger man told by his older, wiser self the self who realizes that wars are pointless, and that he and his friends, young men from good homes forming an offbeat band of brothers, were senseless to see glory in the prospect of dying young. But it is also a painful, shocking, and tragically relevant homage to the importance of bearing witness to the follies of the past, even, or especially, when they are one's own"--A record for an English translation.

Mil novecientos cuarenta y ocho

Michael Murphy

Daniel Wolff

John Kinsella

Alex Stein

Judith Hermann

Steven Heighton

Benjamin Paloff

Gary Fincke

Christopher Sorrentino

Ruth Curry

Marion Wyce

Jesse Goolsby

Renee Ashley

Cassie Hay

Joyce Hinnefeld

Sean McConnell

Geoffrey Nutter

Michael Copperman

Krzysztof Jaworski

Caleb Curtiss

Anthony Berris

Madeleine Beckman

Wendy Burk

Michela Costello

Margot Dembo

Suzanna Hopcroft

Tedi Mills

Anne McPeak

Drew Riley

Ryan Romine

Peter Shippy

William Zander

The Rogue Idea

Roman traduit de l’hébreu par Laurence Sendrowicz Dans cet ultime roman, Yoram Kaniuk met en scène un vieux peintre désabusé, dont la spécialité est de représenter les morts. Un matin à l’aube, il reçoit l’appel d’une étrange femme qui sollicite ses services alors qu’elle vient de perdre son mari. Cette rencontre va lui permettre de retrouver le seul être qui ait aimé et (peut-être) compris son œuvre.À qui s’adresse l’artiste ? Une œuvre d’art existe-t-elle uniquement si elle est vue ? Avant de nous quitter, Kaniuk, peintre et grand connaisseur d’art, nous fait part de sa vérité.

Presque

Sujet d'études d'un centre spécialisé de Tel-Aviv, Evenezer Schneorsohn enregistre des cassettes sur lesquelles il témoigne de son expérience unique dans un camp de la mort : convaincu qu'il serait le seul survivant de l'holocauste, il a réussi, par un curieux phénomène d'effacement de soi, à emmagasiner dans son cerveau tout ce qui, d'après lui, constituait le savoir juif (la théorie de la relativité d'Einstein, le texte intégral des cinq livres de la Bible, une recette de cuisine...). Il est le " dernier Juif ", autour duquel s'articulent tous les autres personnages de ce roman fragmenté. Récits, légendes hassidiques, témoignages, lettres viennent se greffer sur l'histoire d'Evenezer pour composer un étrange puzzle qui emmène le lecteur de Ternopol à New York, de la Galilée à Marseille, du Moyen Âge à un futur non encore vécu. Ainsi, nous suivons la correspondance du professeur Henkine avec un écrivain allemand qui n'en finit pas d'expier le rôle joué par son père pendant la guerre, les diverses activités de Boaz Schneorsohn au sein de sa lucrative entreprise de commémora tion, les échecs sentimentaux et les grandes réussites agricoles de la très belle Rivka Sourka, qui, dit on, possède le pouvoir de détourner la mort. Tous ces personnages ont un lien avec l'intrigant Joseph Reina, poète et don juan aux yeux de démon, géniteur de cent enfants qu'il a semés de par le monde. Mêlant fantastique, ironie et grotesque, cette grande fresque retrace une histoire d'Israël portée par la totale subjectivité d'un de ses acteurs privilégiés dont elle constitue l'oeuvre maîtresse.

Le dernier Juif

Récit traduit de l'hébreu par : Laurence Sendrowicz Yoram Kaniuk interroge ici le jeune homme qu’il a été en 1948, survivant d’une guerre (la guerre d’Indépendance), qui relève davantage de Charlot soldat que du récit héroïque... Il nous fait parcourir ce pays naissant, à travers des combats qui ont pour théâtre d’opérations villes, villages, citadelles, collines, monastères - des lieux qui constituent une géographie guerrière dont la logique échappe aux simples soldats. Car aucun de ces jeunes qui tombent comme des mouches ne sait manier la mitraillette, ou bien, lorsqu’ils le savent, c’est la mitraillette qui se révèle impraticable... À partir d’anecdotes où l’horreur côtoie le burlesque, l’écrivain compose un puzzle inédit qui, sous une autre plume, serait à peine crédible. Mais Kaniuk a le génie du détail qui illumine l’évidence. Dans une écriture à la fois jaillissante et très contrôlée, il retrouve son regard d’adolescent perplexe jeté dans la guerre avec, pour tout entraînement, quelques bains de mer glacés. Témoin privilégié d’événements qui le dépassent, d’un conflit où rien n’a été réglé malgré le prix humain démesuré qu’il a exigé et exige encore, Yoram Kaniuk, avec une grande lucidité, ne cherche ni à justifier ni à condamner : il pose des questions auxquelles nulle réponse valable n’a encore été trouvée... Magistralement, avec beaucoup de subtilité, en évoquant cette guerre vieille de plus de soixante ans, l’écrivain nous parle d’aujourd’hui. Au fond de chaque description de ces combats d’où personne - même pas les survivants - n’est ressorti vivant, c’est l’inanité des guerres, de toutes les guerres qui nous prend à la gorge...

1948

The final literary testament of “one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western World” (New York Times), Between Life and Death is a startlingly brave, funny, poetic, and moving autobiographical novel about the four months Yoram Kaniuk spent in a coma near the end of his life. In Between Life and Death, famed Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk describes the four months during which he lay unconscious in a Tel Aviv hospital, hovering between the world of the living and that of the dead. Told in an arresting, dreamlike style that blends playfulness with fearless honesty, Kaniuk attempts to penetrate his own lost consciousness and understand what led him to fight for his life with such tenacity. Shifting between memory and illusion, imagination and testimony, Kaniuk inquires into the place of death in society, the lust for life, and the force of human relationships. He also writes movingly about the Holocaust survivors of his childhood neighborhood, and the battles of the 1948 War of Independence, in which he fought. Full of renewed vitality at the age of seventy-four, Kaniuk announced his rebirth in Between Life and Death, and left us a treasure of world literature that is sure to become a classic.

Between Life and Death

Rockinghorse

יורם קניוק

המלכה ואני

“A layered, sweeping panorama of 20th Century Jewish life and identity.” —Publishers Weekly Yoram Kaniuk has been hailed as “one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western World,” and The Last Jew is his exhilarating masterwork (The New York Times). Like Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Last Jew is a sweeping saga that captures the troubled history and culture of an entire people through the prism of one family. From the chilling opening scene of a soldier returning home in a fog of battle trauma, the novel moves backward through time and across continents until Kaniuk has succeeded in bringing to life the twentieth century’s most unsettling legacy: the anxieties of modern Europe, which begat the Holocaust, and in turn the birth of Israel and the swirling cauldron that is the Middle East. With the unforgettable character of Ebenezer Schneerson—the eponymous last Jew—at its center, Kaniuk weaves an ingenious tapestry of Jewish identity that is alternately tragic, absurd, enigmatic, and heartbreaking. “A true work of art, free from emotional manipulations.” —The Washington Post

The Last Jew

Sixty years after fighting in Israel's War of Independence, Yoram Kaniuk tries to remember what exactly did—and did not—happen in his time as a teenage soldier in the Palmach. The result is a touchingly poignant and hauntingly beautiful memoir that the author himself considers a work of fiction, for what is memory but one's own story about the past? Eschewing self-righteousness in favor of self-criticism, Kaniuk's book, winner of the 2010 Sapir Prize for Literature, is the tale of a younger man told by his older, wiser self—the self who realizes that wars are pointless, and that he and his friends, young men from good homes forming an offbeat band of brothers, were senseless to see glory in the prospect of dying young. But it is also a painful, shocking, and tragically relevant homage to the importance of bearing witness to the follies of the past, even—or especially—when they are one's own.

Joachim Schlör

Boris Karmi

Unlike any other photographer, Boris Carmi (1914-2002) succeeded in capturing the essence of Israeli society from its very beginning in images that never fail to surprise. He was one of the founding fathers of photojournalism in a new-born country, focussing on scenes of everyday life, and portraits of the country's cultural elite. In the midst of conflict, however, it was the ordinary people who interested Carmi most.

Photographs from Israel

Boris Carmi

Mikhail Bulgakov

Jaroslav Hasek

Gert Ledig

Dzevad Karahasan

Fünf Kriegsromane der Weltliteratur. Was gewinnt, wer sein Leben rettet? – 5 Romane über das, was Krieg bedeutet: Michail Bulgakow. Die weiße Garde: Ein Roman über die historischen Umbrüche in der Ukraine, auch heute politisch brisant. Gert Ledig. Die Stalinorgel: Eine einzigartige, gnadenlos radikale Beschreibung der Maschinerie des Todes bei Leningrad. Dževad Karahasan. Sara und Serafina: Karahasan hat ein ergreifendes Psychogramm über den Bosnienkrieg und die Betroffenen geschrieben. Yoram Kaniuk. 1948: Israels Unabhängigkeitskrieg aus der Sicht eines 17-Jährigen – wider alle Heldengesänge und Legenden. Jaroslav Hašek. Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk: Ein Schelmenroman, ein Anti-Kriegsroman: witzig, respektlos und subversiv. Michail Bulgakow. Die weiße Garde. Dezember 1918: In Russland herrscht Bürgerkrieg. Die deutschen Truppen haben weite Teile der Ukraine besetzt. Kiew wird zum Sammelbecken für die „Weißen“: Bankiers, Adlige, Halbweltdamen auf der Flucht vor der „roten Gefahr“. Mittels einzelner Episoden entfaltet Bulgakow ein großes Panorama der Jahre 1918/1919, des Zusammenbruchs des zaristischen Russlands und vor allem der unterschiedlichen politischen Strömungen, ihrer Sprecher und Bewegungen. Gert Ledig. Die Stalinorgel. „Die Stalinorgel“ schildert den verlustreichen Kampf um eine Anhöhe bei Leningrad – aus deutscher und aus russischer Sicht – mit einem Sarkasmus, der nie „dröhnt“, nie zum Selbstzweck wird, stets der Aufgabe untergeordnet bleibt, das grauenhafte Geschehen und die Verzweiflung der Kämpfenden zu konturieren und greifbar zu machen. Ledigs Stil, die kühlen, kurzen Hauptsätze, verdichten sich zur Apokalypse des Krieges schlechthin. Ledig kannte das Inferno um Leningrad aus eigener Erfahrung. Dževad Karahasan. Sara und Serafina. Ein junges Paar soll mithilfe gefälschter Taufdokumente aus dem belagerten Sarajevo herausgebracht werden. Die Aktion scheitert. Knapp 20 Minuten liegen zwischen Anfang und Ende des Romans, doch die wie in einer Zeitspirale erzählte Geschichte reicht zurück bis ins Jahr 1942, als Serafina, die sich Sara nannte, beinahe mit ihrer jüdischen Freundin nach Auschwitz abtransportiert worden wäre. Yoram Kaniuk. 1948. Kaniuk hat die Geschichte eines jungen Mannes aufgeschrieben, der voller Heldenmut die Schule verlässt und sich der jüdischen Untergrundorganisation Palmach anschließt. Erst als alter Mann, nach einer schweren Krankheit, die ihn in Todesnähe brachte, hatte Kaniuk sich entschlossen, die Erinnerungen an diese Zeit aufzuschreiben: Darin verleiht er dem Yoram von damals die Stimme und die Gedanken des Kaniuks von heute und erzählt in beklemmenden Bildern und schockierenden Momentaufnahmen von dem Kampf, der zur Entstehung des Staates Israel führte. Jaroslav Hašek. Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk. Jaroslav Hašeks unvollendet gebliebener satirischer Roman um die Erlebnisse des Prager Hundehändlers Josef Schwejk im Ersten Weltkrieg gehört zu den unvergänglichen und zugleich amüsantesten Werken der Weltliteratur. Schwejk, der unter dem Deckmantel der geistigen Zurückgebliebenheit den ganzen Dienstbetrieb durcheinanderbringt und damit die Sinnlosigkeit des Krieges vorführt, wurde zum Sinnbild des Widerstandes gegen jede Obrigkeit.

Die weiße Garde / Die Stalinorgel / Sara und Serafina / 1948. Roman / Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk

Süddeutsche Zeitung eBibliothek: Die Kriegsromane

The final literary testament of “one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western World” (New York Times), Between Life and Death is a startling, brave, funny, and poetic autobiographical novel about the four months Yoram Kaniuk spent in a coma near the end of his life. In Between Life and Death, celebrated Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk relives the four months during which he lay unconscious in a Tel Aviv hospital, hovering between the worlds of the living and of the dead. With an arresting, dreamlike style that blends playfulness with fearless honesty, Kaniuk attempts to penetrate his own lost consciousness. Shifting between memory and illusion, imagination and testimony, Kaniuk explores the place of death in society, his own lust for life, and the encompassing struggles of the twentieth century. He writes about the colorful characters of his childhood neighborhood, battles in the 1948 War of Independence, and his defiant voyages across the Mediterranean on ships packed with Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe. With renewed vitality at the age of seventy-four, Kaniuk announced his rebirth with Between Life and Death, and left us a treasure of world literature that is destined for immortality. “How can one even review the final work of a writer as rewarding, innovative, and rebellious as Kaniuk?... Kaniuk’s achievement is inconceivable and awe-inspiring: at the age of seventy-seven, with a broken body, after his soul almost parted from this life, he managed to pull himself together for a short while, get back to his writing desk, and recount his near-death experience.… The writing is skilful and you cannot stop turning the pages.” —Time Out “Kaniuk’s best novel to date…The author captures a rare voice, a tone which is elegiac, full of rhythm, paratactic, and irresistible in its pull.… It achieves excellence and transparent wonder.” —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Yoram Kaniuk

About

Books

Join the club