- Paperback: 240 pages
- Published: 11/7/23
- IBSN: 9781617752292
- e-IBSN: 9781636141404
- Genre: Fiction
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West Jerusalem Noir
In West Jerusalem Noir—published simultaneously with East Jerusalem Noir—the Akashic Noir Series visits one of the world’s most complex locales, in this volume from the perspective of Israeli writers (translated from Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan)
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What people are saying…
“Noir fiction can be defined as crime fiction with dark themes, often featuring ‘a disturbing mixture of sex and violence.’ The stories of West Jerusalem Noir are somewhat tamer; their protagonists are confronted with the dark complexities of living in a city filled with national, religious, and socioeconomic tension. West Jerusalem Noir of the Akashic Noir Series is published simultaneously with East Jerusalem Noir, a companion collection that tells of the unfulfilled hopes and dreams of Jerusalem’s Arab residents, their lives vastly different from those living in the western half of the city.”
—Times of Israel
“These two varied collections of stories, published simultaneously, are set in a kaleidoscopic Jerusalem that is impossible to describe with a single voice. Both volumes attempt to render one of the world’s oldest, bloodiest, holiest, and most divided cities . . . The stories in West Jerusalem Noir vary widely in scope . . . unlike the East edition, some of the stories in West use Israel’s capital and the region’s strife as a backdrop rather than a foreground . . . It might be said that any story set in a city so steeped in violent history, so scrawled with religious myth, and so floodlit by divisive order is a story about searching, about darkness, and about moral qualms — is, in other words, a noir.”
—Jewish Book Council, on East Jerusalem Noir and West Jerusalem Noir
“Fifteen tales that capture the magic and mystery of everyday life in West Jerusalem, which has been the main area of Jewish population from the time of Israeli independence in 1948 . . . Whether these stories are peopled by soldiers, students, children, and parents, they keep asking, ‘Who belongs in Jerusalem?’ and its corollary, ‘Who does Jerusalem belong to?’—the central questions of this volume, which handles them with heartfelt sensitivity. Pushes the boundaries of noir in a welcome new direction.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[Of] the West Jerusalem stories . . . The best is Bernstein’s Kafkaesque tale of hiding one’s head to avoid noticing the violence that’s happening all around . . . VERDICT Rather than collections of crime noir, these are deep dives into the anguished psyche of a grievously divided city.”
—Library Journal
Description
From the editor’s introduction: “This anthology offers a fictional tour of Jerusalem, this time through the lens of the noir genre. Not all the stories in this book include a detective, a femme fatale, or a dead body. In fact, a significant number of the writers chose to avoid these genre staples. And yet the stories—each taking place in a different part of the city—sketch a dark, imagined map of the city, where religious mystery dwells alongside the quotidian, claustrophobic hubbub of the Central Bus Station . . . The stories included in West Jerusalem Noir could not have taken place anywhere else. They reflect national, religious, and socioeconomic tensions inherent to the city and sketch an image of a concrete, contemporary, and complicated Jerusalem.”
Featuring brand-new stories by: Yiftach Ashkenazi, Ilana Bernstein, Emanuel Yitzhak Levi and Guli Dolev-Hashiloni, Liat Elkayam, Asaf Schurr, Yardenne Greenspan, Ilai Rowner, Zohar Elmakias, Ilan Rubin Fields, Nano Shabtai, Yaara Shehori, Tafat Hacohen-Bick, Nadav Lapid, Tehila Hakimi, and Oded Wolkstein.
West Jerusalem Noir is being published simultaneously with East Jerusalem Noir, edited by Rawya Jarjoura Burbara. The companion volume explores the city with brand-new stories by Palestinian authors.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I: ON THAT MOUNTAIN
“A Great Bunch of Guys” by Yiftach Ashkenazi (Hizma Checkpoint)
“You Can’t See the Occupation from Here” by Ilana Bernstein (Mount Scopus)
“Dos Is Nisht a Khazir” by Emanuel Yitzchak Levi and Guli Dolev-Hashiloni (Katamon)
“Murder at Sam Spiegel” by Liat Elkayam (Sam Spiegel Film and Television School)
PART II: CREVICES
“Chrysanthemums” by Asaf Schurr (Pat Junction)
“Top of the Stairs” by Yardenne Greenspan (Yemin Moshe)
“In the City of the Dead” by Ilai Rowner (Har HaMenuchot Cemetery)
“Eclipse” by Zohar Elmakias (Temple Mount)
PART III: STONES
“Arson” by Ilan Rubin Fields (French Hill)
“Vagina” by Nano Shabtai (Jerusalem Forest)
“Seven Ways to Make Jewish Stuffed Fish” by Yaara Shehori (Mishkenot Sha’ananim)
PART IV: RETURNINGS
“When Slumber Fell on Me” by Tafat Hacohen-Bick (Old City)
“Why Did You Cross the Line” by Nadav Lapid (Talpiot)
“Levy” by Tehila Hakimi (National Library)
“Just One Thing” by Oded Wolkstein (Central Bus Station)
Contributors
- Subjects: Middle East & Asian Interest, Mysteries & Crime, Noir Series
- Tags: Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, Noir Series, Palestine
Book Details
Author
MAAYAN EITAN’s short fiction and essays have been published in the Kenyon Review, World Literature Today, and the Tel Aviv Review of Books; her work also appears regularly in Israeli literary magazines. She holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of Michigan and is currently pursuing a PhD in Hebrew literature in Israel. Love, her debut novel, was published in Israel in 2020; the English translation was published in the US in 2022 by Penguin Press. She edited the forthcoming collection West Jerusalem Noir.