Guest of the ilb 2007
David Grossman
was born in Jerusalem in 1954. He began making youth broadcasts for
Radio Israel at the age of ten, and continued to work for the
organisation until 1989 as a news editor, author of radio plays and
announcer. Following his military service Grossman studied Philosophy
and theatre at the Hebrew University. His first stories already focused
on two themes which were to persist throughout his work: coming of age
and the war and violence which mark everyday life in Israel. Since then
Grossman has published a large number of novels, short stories, plays
for radio and theatre (some for children), non-fiction books and
newspaper articles. He is a leading Israeli writer of his generation
and an omnipresent advocate for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
Grossman's first novel, »Hiyukh Ha-Gedi« (1983; Eng. »The Smile of the
Lamb«, 1991), made into a film two years later, focuses on the
occupation of the West Bank while his collection of reportages,
»Ha-Zeman Ha-Tzahov« (1987; Eng. »The Yellow Wind«, 1988) documents
individual cases in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the Oslo
Peace Agreement in 1993 Grossman has published numerous articles in
American and European journals, a selection of which was published
entitled »Mavet Kederech Chaim« (2003; Eng. »Death as a Way of Life«,
2003). That same year the Geneva Initiative – an action group which he
co-founded – made its model for lasting peace public. Shortly after the
death of his son Uri who was a soldier in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon
Conflict, Grossman – in the presence of Prime Minister Olmert – made an
appeal to turn away from the current politics of violence and mistrust.
As the author stated in a talk at the Jerusalem Book Fair, literature
makes a crucial contribution to overcoming the conflict: »Writing in
such a violent reality is a constant attempt to redeem individuality,
to reclaim the uniqueness of the individual, in a situation that blurs
the uniqueness and the nuance. When we write here we manage to
experience the almost forgotten flexibility of a change of perspective;
of looking at reality from somebody else's eyes, sometimes even the
eyes of our enemy.« His craft, to touchingly portray the fate of
individuals and to fuse different planes of reality, is often apparent
in Grossman’s novels, in which the boundaries between literature for
young people and adults are blurred. In »Ajien Erech: Ahavah« (1986;
Eng. »See under: Love«, 1990) the voices of four narrators revolve
around a child's search to come to terms with the Holocaust which has
marked his life, even though he himself did not experience it. »Yesh
Yeladim Zigzag« (1994; Eng. »The ZigZag Kid«, 1997) tells the story of
a young man in search of his family's secret, in which process he also
finds himself. Most recently he published »Dvash Araiot« (2005; Eng.
»Lion's Honey«, 2006) a new interpretation of the myth of Samson which
highlights not the legendary strength of the figure but rather his
weakness.
Grossman has been awarded numerous literary prizes for his work, such
as the Valumbrosa Prize, the Premio Grinzane, the Nelly Sachs Prize,
the Premio Mondelo, the Vittorio de Sica Prize, the Marsh Award for
Children's Literature in Translation, the Juliet Club Prize, the
Buxtehuder Bulle, the Manés Sperber Prize and the Sapir Prize. For his
political commitment he has received the Har Zion Prize. In 1998 he was
named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in a
suburb of Jerusalem.
© international literature festival berlin | 
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