num_pages: 560
description: Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, A Tale of Love and Darkness is at once a family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history.It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother's suicide when he was twelve years old. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and its community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation.(back cover)
language: English
title: A Tale of Love and Darkness
titlecomplete: A Tale of Love and Darkness
genres: Jewish, Biography, Israel, Literature, Autobiography, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Contemporary, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 10986
places: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Russia
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Prix France Culture, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Koret Jewish Book Award
category: Biography, Autobiography or Literary Study, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Harvest / Harcourt