Conversations With Israeli Authors: Yishai Sarid

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Hebrew Book Month at the National Library of Israel includes a series of meetings with famous Israeli authors whose works have been translated into English and other languages. During the month of ​June, you will have the opportunity to not only meet but also engage with leading contemporary Israeli writers. This series of meetings is moderated by the prominent Israeli journalist and literary critic Yuval Avivi.

 

Join us for the fourth meeting of our series – a conversation with Yishai Sarid, July 3, 2022

Yishai Sarid was born in 1965 in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is the son of the late Yossi Sarid, a prominent Israeli politician. During the 1980s Yishai Sarid served as an intelligence officer in the Israeli Army. He graduated with a law degree from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and worked in the Ministry of Justice as a prosecutor. Since 2002 he has been working as an attorney in the private sector. Yishai Sarid lives in Tel Aviv with his wife and three children.

Sarid has published the following books:

The Investigation of Captain Erez (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2000) tells the story of an army officer who is investigated by the authorities after being accused of raping a female soldier.

Limassol (Am Oved, 2009) has been translated into 8 different languages, winning the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (2011) and being shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It tells the story of a high-ranking official in the Israeli secret service who is handed a new brief: he must go undercover as an aspiring novelist to befriend Dauphna, an Israeli writer, and her friend Hani, a renowned Palestinian poet. The target is Hani's son Yotam, a wanted terrorist leader.

Naomi's Kindergarten (Am Oved, 2013) was shortlisted for the Sapir literary prize in Israel. It tells the story of one crucial year in the life of a Tel Aviv kindergarten teacher.

The Third (Am Oved, 2015) takes place in the era of the Third Temple, built in Jerusalem after the State of Israel is replaced by the religious Kingdom of Judea. It won The Bernstein Prize in Israel and has been translated into French and Italian.

The Memory Monster (Am Oved, 2017) offers a new perspective on the Holocaust. The story centers on the mental disintegration of a historian obsessed with committing to memory Nazi methods of extermination during the Shoah, and then contextualizing them for new generations. The Memory Monster was translated into French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Catalan. The New York Times book review called it "a brilliant novel", and included it in its list of "100 Notable Books of 2020".

Victorious (Am Oved, 2020) tells the story of a veteran military psychologist, specializing in the mental training of combat soldiers, who has a close relationship with the Israeli army's chief of staff.

 

Sunday, July 3,  8 pm Israel / 7 pm CET / 6 pm UK / 1 pm EST