Scenes from Village Life: Amos Oz - Softcover

"This is a dark book, with a dark vision of contemporary Israel... The whole, rich, disturbing mixture makes one feel as if something dark is digging away at the foundations, something unnameable ready to emerge. It is one of the most powerful books you will read about present-day Israel." (David Herman Jewish Chronicle)

"These stories have both force and mystery, and they cast a quiet spell" (Scotland on Sunday)

"A powerfully bleak portrait of loneliness, confusion and cracked bonds" (The Times)

"These stories, in their humanity, may do more for Israel than any of the decisions we have been led to expect of its leaders in the months to come" (New Statesman)

"I enjoyed Amos Oz's Scenes From Village Life a great deal... it explores what is universal, what is entirely idiosyncratic, about daily life in Israel away from the obvious conflicts" (Kate Kellaway Observer)

A teenage son shoots himself under his parents' bed. They sleep that night unaware he is lying dead beneath them.

A stranger turns up at a man's door to persude him that they must get rid of his ageing mother in order to sell the house.

An old man grumbles to his daughter about the unexplained digging and banging he hears under the house at night.

As each story unfolds, Amos Oz, builds a portrait of a village in Israel. It is a surreal and unsettling place. Each villager is searching for something, and behind each episode is another, hidden story. In this powerful, hynotic work Amos Oz peers into the darkness of our lives and gives us a glimpse of what goes on beneath the surface of everyday existence.

By the winner of the 2013 Franz Kafka Prize, previous winners of which include Philip Roth, Ivan Klima, Elfriede Jelinek, Harold Pinter and John Banville.