The Cultural Department of the Israeli Embassy and the Spiro Ark are proud and delighted to host the acclaimed veteran Israeli novelist Hanoch Bartov (b.1926)

Date: Thursday 22 March 2007

Time: 7.00 for 7.30pm

Venue: The Spiro Ark Centre

  25-26 Enford St, W1

Price: £10

Hanoch Bartov is representative of a unique phenomenon. Born in pre-independence Eretz Israel, he has lived through the dramatic ups and downs of Israeli history and society. Hanoch Bartov will speak as a novelist whose identity is that of an Israeli, a Jew and a writer.

Hanoch Bartov was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, in 1926 and now lives in Tel Aviv. During World War II, he served in the British Army`s Jewish Brigade and he fought in Israel`s 1948 War of Independence. Bartov is well known as a novelist, playwright and journalist. He served as Israel`s Counsellor for Cultural Affairs in London, and for 20 years he wrote a regular opinion column for the daily Maariv. He has published 10 novels, six collections of short stories, three books of essays and a biography of David Elazar. Among other awards, Bartov has received the Shlonsky Prize (1965), the Bialik Prize (1985), the President`s Prize for Literature (1998), the Agnon Prize (2005) and the Buchman Prize for his novel, Beyond the Horizon, Across the Street (2006). In 2005, he was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Tel Aviv University.

Books Published in Hebrew

The Reckoning and the Soul (novel), Sifriat Poalim, 1953 [Ha-Hesbon Ve-Ha-Nefesh]; Ma`ariv, 1988

Everyone Had Six Wings (novel), Sifriat Poalim, 1954 [Shesh Knafaim Le-Ehad]; Am Oved, 1973; Ma`ariv, 1988

The Little Market (stories), Sifriat Poalim, 1957 [Ha-Shuk Ha-Katan]

Four Israelis and All America (travel), Sifriat Poalim, 1961 [Arba Yisraelim Ve-Col America]

Massada, 1963

The Heart of the Wise (stories), Sifriat Poalim, 1962 [Lev Hachamim]

The Brigade (novel), Am Oved, 1965 [Pitzei Bagrut] Ma`ariv, 1988

Israelis at the Court of St. James (travel), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1969 [Arba Yisraelim Be-Hatzer Saint James]

Whose Little Boy Are You? (novel), Am Oved, 1970 [Shel Mi Ata Yeled] Ma`ariv, 1988

A Distant Sister (stories), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1973 [Ahot Rehoka]

The Dissembler (novel), Am Oved, 1975 [Ha-Badai] Ma`ariv, 1988

Dado - 48 Years and Another 20 Days (biography), Ma`ariv, 1978; Dvir, 2002 [Dado, 48 Shanim Ve-Od 20 Yom]

Little Jew (stories), Am Oved, 1981 [Yehudi Katan]

In the Middle of it All (novel), Am Oved 1984 [Be-Emtza Ha-Roman] Ma`ariv, 1988

A Fair in Moscow (travel), Ma`ariv, 1988 [Yerid Be-Moskva]

Mazal Ayala (stories), Ma`ariv, 1988 [Mazal Ayala]

This is Ishel Speaking (novel), Ma`ariv, 1990 [Ze Ishel Medaber]

Death on Purim (stories), Ma`ariv, 1992 [Mavet Be-Purim]

Halfway Out (novel), Am Oved, 1994 [Regel Ahat Ba-Hutz]

I am not the Mythological Sabra (essays), Am Oved, 1995 [Ani Lo Ha-Tzabar Ha-Mitologi]

A Heart Poured Out (novella and story), Zmora Bitan, 2001 [Lev Shafuch]

Hand in Hand, Locked for Life (novel), Zmora Bitan, 2003 [Mi-Tom Ad Tom]

Beyond the Horizon, Across the Street (novel), Zmora Bitan, 2006 [Mi-chuts La-Ofek, Me`ever La-rechov]

Books in Translation

The Brigade

English: Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1967

New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968

London, MacDonald, 1969

Russian: Jerusalem, Alia, 1977

An Israeli at the Court of St. James

English: London, Vallentine Mitchell, 1971

The Dissembler

Spanish: Jerusalem, Semana, 1978

Russian: Jerusalem, Alia, 1981

Whose Little Boy Are You?

English: Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1978

Dado, 8 years 20 days

English: Tel Aviv, Ma`ariv, 1981

Greek: Athens, Istor, 1985

Everyone Had Six Wings Jerusalem, World Zionist Organization, 1974. This novel was adapted for the Hebrew stage and produced at the “Habima” Theatre and chosen for the Theatre’s American tour in 1964. It was also produced by small theatres in Paris (in French) and in Los Angeles (in English).

Various short stories of mine appeared din Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish and other languages.

A collection of essays – To Grow and Write in the Land of Israel – in Hebrew is to be published in a few months by the publishers Kineret, Zmora, Bitan