Harvest in translation

The Black Book is a stunning tapestry of Middle Eastern and Islamic culture which confirms Orhan Pamuk's reputation as a writer of international stature, comparable to Borges and Calvino. Galip is an Istanbul lawyer, and his wife, Ruya, has vanished. Could she be hiding out with her half brother, Jelal, a newspaper columnist whose fame Galip envies? And if so, why isn't anyone in Jelal's flat? As Galip plays the part of private investigator, he assumes the identity of Jelal himself, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even faking his wry columns, which he passes off as the work of the missing journalist. But the amateur sleuth bungles his undercover operation, and with dire consequences. Richly atmospheric and Rabelaisian in scope, The Black Book is a labyrinthine novel suffused with the sights, sounds, and scents of Istanbul. An unforgettable evocation of the city where East meets West, The Black Book is a boldly unconventional mystery that plumbs the elusive nature of identity, fiction, interpretation, and reality.

"Notebook in hand, Amos Oz traveled throughout Israel and the West Bank -- to cities, towns, and obscure corners -- to talk with workers, soldiers, religious zealots, aging pioneers, new immigrants, desperate Arabs, young fanatics, dreamers, and visionaries. He asked them where Israel had come from, where it was now, where it was headed. What he heard is memorably recorded here in their distinctive voices, alongside Oz's keen descriptions, observations, and reflections. Oz tells the truth as he sees it and others see it, with courage and brutal frankness. This scrupulously is accurate, but passionate, reporting on the most urgent questions facing Israel today"--Publisher's description

With the publication of Open Heart, internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua has written a psychological tour de force that takes as its subject nothing less than love and the nature of man's soul. From the opening lines of this first-person narrative, the reader is propelled into the mind of Dr. Benjamin Rubin, an ambitious young internist, who is jockeying for position with the hospital's top surgeons. But it isn't until Benjy learns that his internship has been terminated, and that he has been selected to accompany the hospital administrator and his wife to India to retrieve their ailing daughter, that Yehoshua sets his hero on a journey of self-discovery. This journey brings the supremely rational, coolheaded physician to surrender all his deeply held beliefs when his experience in India awakens an erotic passion that dares to destroy his tidy world as he pursues the illicit love of the administrator's wife.