A Tale of Love and Darkness
Amos Oz
Discover Amos Oz’s most iconic work in this extraordinary memoir that is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation
*OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE*
‘A hero of mine, a moral as well as literary giant’ Simon Schama
Amos Oz's remarkable, moving story takes us on a seductive journey through his childhood and adolescence, along Jerusalem's war-torn streets in the 1940s and '50s and into a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. Caught between them is one small boy with the weight of generations on his shoulders.
Oz dives into 120 years of family history and paradox, the saga of a Jewish love-hate affair with Europe that sweeps from Vilna and Odessa, via Poland and Prague, to Israel. Farce and heartbreak, history and humanity make up this story of clashing cultures and lives, of suffering and perseverance, of love and darkness.
‘Oz’s greatest work…not only his autobiography, but in a way the biography of Israel before it was created’ David Grossman, Observer
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About Amos Oz
Reviews for A Tale of Love and Darkness
Guardian
A masterpiece
Irish Times
One of the most gripping, intense and moving autobiographies I have ever read.
Independent on Sunday
It sweeps across 120 years of family history, weaving a tragi-comic saga of love and books, of Jewish life and immigrant life the world over, and of the universal madness of families. Read it now - I promise you won't read a more brilliant book in a long, long while.
Daily Mail
Oz's account of his childhood is often very funny - and then profoundly moving, as he circles slowly round to confront the intolerable pain at the heart of it
Michael Frayn
Week