Sami Michael

A Trumpet in the Wadi

"Sami Michael has written an inspiring, insightful novel that dismantles long-standing clichés about the separation of Arabs and Israelis. A Trumpet in the Wadi is a stirring story of possibility and mutuality." Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Crescent

Klappentext:

Leading Israeli novelist Sami Michael shares his gift for navigating the cultural conflicts in modern Israel with A Trumpet in the Wadi, a novel that transcends its Middle Eastern setting with an honest and heartbreaking story of impossible love and the strength of family. Set in the months preceding the 1982 Israeli-Arab conflict in Lebanon, this beautifully written tale is the coming-of-age story of two fatherless Christian Arab sisters, Huda and Mary, who live in the wadi – the Arab quarter in the Jewish city of Haifa on the northern coast of Israel. An extraordinary bond of love and mutual respect unites the sisters – polar opposites from their appearances to their tempers. Huda, the narrator of the story, is thin and withdrawn and, after abandoning her chance at marriage a few years back, has prematurely resigned herself to the monotonous life of an old maid. Her younger sister, Mary, is voluptuous, carnal, and perennially unemployed. Wrapped in the love of their sometimes bitter mother, their iconoclast grandfather, and the cheerful and omnipresent neighbor Jamilla, the sisters' lives change when a peculiar young Russian Jewish immigrant, Alex, moves into the upstairs flat. The melodies of the soulful trumpet player become the intoxicating theme music for Huda's unexpected reawakening – and for Mary's dangerous foray into a love triangle with the heir of the local Muslim mob and her country cousin.
Michael's internationally acclaimed novel is a major achievement, illuminating the vast range of interlocking relationships between Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, men and women. A Trumpet in the Wadi is an honest, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking story – one that draws on the conflicts in the Middle East, but one whose insights into love and family can cross all cultural and political boundaries.

Über die Autorin / über den Autor:

Sami Michael was bon in 1926 in Baghdad. At the outbreak of WWII, Michael became involved in a leftist underground group acting against the oppressive regime in Iraq. In 1948, his activities were discovered and he fled to Iran. A year later he made his way to Israel. Michael has been awarded several prizes, including the Ze'ev Prize, the ACUM Award, the IBBY Award in Berlin, and a special prize by SIC, the Society for International Development, promoted by the United Nations, and AISI, the Italian Association for the Promotion of Peace in the Middle East. In July 2001, Sami Michael was appointed President of the Israeli Association for Human Rights. He is the author of eight novels including the international bestseller Victoria and lives in Haifa.

Yael Lotan was born in Palestine under the British Mandate and has lived in Jamaica, England, and the United States. She is the author of the Other I, Mangrove Town, Phaedra, and a documentary book, The Life and Death of Amos Orion. In addition to being a translator from Hebrew to English, Lotan is a magazine editor, literary critic, and a journalist. She lives in Tel Aviv.

Preis: CHF 26.00
Sprache: Englisch (aus dem Hebräischen von Yael Lotan)
Art: Taschenbuch
Erschienen: 2003 (1987)
Verlag: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 978-0-7432-6148-7
Masse: 244 S.

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