What to Read During Israel’s Book Week, From Nevo to Rachel Goldberg-Polin

A roundup of recommended books for Israel’s Book Week highlights new fiction, translations, and memoir. The list includes Ashkel Navo’s new novel “The Longest Night” from Kinneret Zmora, in which several Israelis try to get home by air, sea, and land over one disrupted night: a singer whose performance is canceled, a reserve medic whose flight to Israel is diverted to Cyprus, and a top lawyer locked out of his apartment who meets a woman who sends him on a journey. They wait for morning, searching for a sense of home, while brief moments of light and meaning break through.

Guy Ad is also singled out for her novel “Between the Second and the Third” (Ivrit). The book follows Alpha, a woman raised without a father in an isolated house in a remote settlement, in a symbiotic relationship with her mother, and her partner, an shuttle driver who lives on his bus. They have a child, and Ad uses a distinctive voice and imagery to portray deep relationships and unconventional lives.

The translation section recommends a new Hebrew edition of J. D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories” from Yotam Ben-Shalom, published by Am Oved. The 1953 collection is described as a major work of modern literature, featuring the Glass family and famous stories such as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “For Esmé, with Love and Squalor.” The roundup notes that war is always somewhere in the background.

Other picks include Primo Levi’s “Natural Histories” from HaSifriya HaChadasha, a selection of playful speculative stories about chemistry, biology, and fictional technology, and Raymond Chandler’s “The High Window” from Keter, a classic Philip Marlowe detective novel about a missing rare old coin, hidden truths, and bodies. The non-fiction selection is Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s “As We See You Again” (Kinneret Zmora), written after her son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza. The children’s recommendation is “The Academy” by T. Z. Layton (Matar), about a gifted young footballer with a pet lizard named Messi who is invited to try out for the London Dragons youth team.