Amos Oz

Amos Oz, born in 1939, Israeli writer, whose work explores conflicts and tensions in contemporary Israeli society. More broadly, his work looks at the constraints of ideology, geographic boundaries, and historical traditions universal to all societies.

Born Amos Klausner in Jerusalem shortly before the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), Oz was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained his B.A. degree in 1963, and at Saint Cross College, University of Oxford, where he obtained an M.A. degree. He served in the Israeli army from 1957 to 1960, and again as a reserve soldier in the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War in 1967 and the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. He worked as a schoolteacher and laborer between 1957 and 1973. Oz was a writer in residence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Colorado College in the United States. In 1986 he began teaching Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel. Oz has been active in the Israeli peace movement since the 1967 war and has played a leading role in the activist group Peace Now since its founding in 1977.

A master of modern Hebrew prose, Oz paints an eloquent and often pessimistic picture of Israeli and Palestinian society in the years since the Six-Day War. Among his most successful works of fiction are Mikha'el sheli (published in 1968; translated as My Michael, 1972), the first of his works to be published in English, which chronicles the mental breakdown of a young Israeli homemaker; and Menuhah nekhonah (1982; A Perfect Peace, 1986), the story of two young men living on a kibbutz, a communal settlement in Israel, and their opposing reactions to the experience. Critics have interpreted both these works as possible allegories of contemporary Israel. Oz’s other works include Artsot ha-tan (1965; Where the Jackals Howl, and Other Stories, 1981), La-ga’at ba-mayim, la-ga’at ba-ruach (1973; Touch the Water, Touch the Wind, 1975), Kufsah shehorah (1987; Black Box, 1988), and Al tagidi lailah (1996; Don’t Call it Night, 1996). The short novel Panter ba-martef (1995; Panther in the Basement, 1997) depicts daily life in a land in turmoil. Oz followed it with Oto ha-yam (1999; The Same Sea, 2001), a novel written partly in verse and partly in prose that addresses the nature of love and loss. His memoir Sipur al ahavah ve’hosheck (2004; A Tale of Love and Darkness, 2004) tells of growing up in Jerusalem during the 1940s and 1950s.

Oz has also been noted for his essays, which are often political in nature, for example Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav (1982; In the Land of Israel, 1983). Oz’s Mathilim sipur (1998; The Story Begins, 1998) is a collection of essays on literature.