Between Friends by Amos Oz, short stories, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover)  "As you read these stories, it becomes clear why the kibbutz has lost its hold on Israeli life. Any sense of personal ambition in Between Friends is stifled, every hint of rebellion suppressed. And yet, for all forced conformity, Oz's love for the kibbutz and his nostalgia for what it once was seep into every page. "If you see the directness of Israelis, the almost latent anarchism, the skepticism, the lack of an in-built class hierarchy between the taxi-driver and the passenger—all of those are very much the kibbutz legacy, and it's a good legacy," Oz once said. "So, in a strange way, the kibbutz, like some bygone stars, still provides us with light long after it's been extinguished." That light, in Between Friends, continues to dazzle."--Ruth Margalit,  The New Yorker.

Line Up by Liad Shoham, a crime thriller translated from the Hebrew by Sara Kittai (Harper hardcover) "The latest book, Lineup, from Liad Shoham, the number one best-selling crime author in Israel, has been translated into English.  He has been called Israel’s John Grisham for his complex crime novels, and after reading Lineup it becomes obvious he has lived up to the reputation. The book begins in Tel Aviv where a brutal rape has occurred.  To obtain closure for his daughter the father decides to stake-out the area, finding someone, Ziv Nevo, he is sure is the rapist.  The police detective, Eli Nahum makes a quick arrest and sets up the circumstances to ensure Nevo’s guilt.  However, this rush to judgment causes the case to be tossed out on a technicality resulting in Nahum losing his job and Ziv running for his life.  Nevo, a mobster, was in the neighborhood to plant a car bomb. This is where the plot takes off showing the moral struggles of the characters and those working within the Israeli judicial system." —Elise Cooper in BlackFive.

Who Will Die Last: Stories of Life in Israel by David Ehrlich, edited by Ken Friedan, numerous translators from the Hebrew (Syracuse University Press paperback) ""David Ehrlich takes us into an Israel of fragile soldiers and all-powerful grandmothers, a country that confounds expectations and whose people live at the meeting point between meaning and absurdity. By turn heartbreaking and hilarious (and sometimes both at once), these stories are small epics for a post-mythical time. Only a writer in love with the story of Israel could have written such wonderful Israeli stories."—Yossi Klein Halevi, fellow, The Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem