A MAN LIES DREAMING in France…


Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning, critically-acclaimed A MAN LIES DREAMING is out now in France! Published by Editions Terra Nova as QUAND UN HOMME RÊVE, here’s the synopsis…

À Auschwitz, pendant la guerre, un homme rêve éveillé. La nuit venue, pour échapper à la réalité terrifiante du camp, Shomer imagine un autre monde. Un monde crépusculaire dans lequel Wolf, un chef nazi, a été obligé de fuir à Londres. Pour survivre dans les rues crasseuses de la capitale, Wolf est devenu détective privé. Un jour, dans son bureau misérable, il reçoit une femme juive qui lui demande de retrouver sa sœur. Wolf hait les Juifs : ils sont responsables de son exil, ils hantent son présent et ses souvenirs. Mais l’ex-chantre du nazisme a désespérément besoin d’argent. Il accepte donc cette mission, qui le conduit d’humiliations en humiliations. Entre le rêveur et son personnage d’étranges liens se tissent. Et dans sa déchéance, Wolf finit aussi par devenir plus humain…

Quand Histoire et imaginaire s’entrecroisent. Un roman magistral.

A MAN LIES DREAMING, which won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, is published in the UK by Hodder and in the US by Melville House. It has also been published widely in translation (see below for some of the covers). Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Here are a few of the great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Wild, noir-infused alternative history from genre-bender Tidhar… A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.’ Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘…savagely funny… A MAN LIES DREAMING, by the Israeli-born novelist Lavie Tidhar, has not been published with the fanfare bestowed on Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest or Howard Jacobson’s J, but it is their equal for savage humour… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘No one can accuse Lavie Tidhar of being risk-averse… Tidhar reveals – as he did earlier in OSAMA and to some extent in THE VIOLENT CENTURY – that he’s really less interested in the mechanistic ‘‘what-ifs’’ of conventional alternate history than he is in the interpenetration of real and in­vented histories, or perhaps more grandiosely in the interpenetration of art and life – even the often-demeaned art of sensational fiction or (as in the case of THE VIOLENT CENTURY) comic books. This is what makes him such an interesting writer, and what makes A MAN LIES DREAMING quite a bit more complex than it at first appears… the novel is not without a fair amount of humor, and that might well be the boldest risk Tidhar is taking here…’ Locus

‘Everything in this genre-bender works; intriguing historical characters are worked into expertly managed plots, and the visceral noir atmosphere is juxtaposed nicely against the drawing-room world of London’s political scene.’ Booklist (Starred Review)

‘A Chandler-esque mystery… a jarring tale of a grim, gray alternative world… Seldom will readers come across fantasy as well conceived and well written as this exceptional novel.’ Library Journal (Starred Review)

THE VIOLENT CENTURY coming soon in Poland!


Next month, MAG are due to publish Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY! Published in Poland as STULECIE PRZEMOCY, with the stunning cover above, here’s the synopsis…

Nie chcieli zostać bohaterami.

Bronili Imperium Brytyjskiego przez siedemdziesiąt lat. Oblivion i Fogg, nierozłączni przyjaciele powiązani wspólnym przeznaczeniem. Aż do pewnej nocy w Berlinie, kiedy rozdzieliła ich wojna i tajemnica.

Jednakże przeszłość potrafi dogonić każdego.

Wezwani ponownie do Biura Spraw Przestarzałych – instytucji, dla której żadna sprawa nie staje się przestarzała – Fogg i Oblivion muszą stawić czoło pamięci o straszliwej wojnie, nieupamiętnionych aktach heroizmu oraz życiu w dusznych korytarzach i zamkniętych pokojach, gdzie odbywają się potajemne spotkania. Muszą się z tym wszystkim zmierzyć, by znaleźć odpowiedź na pytanie ostateczne:

Co czyni bohatera?

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Thomas Dunne Books, and as a Limited Edition by PS Publishing. It has also been published in a number of other territories and languages. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

They never meant to be heroes.

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question:

What makes a hero?

Here is a selection from the afore-mentioned critical acclaim that has been heaped on the novel…

‘A brilliantly etched phantasmagoric reconfiguring of that most sizzling of eras – the twilight 20th…  This book has it all:  time travel, political intrigue, hellacious history…  You’ve got superheroes in the guise of regular humans, you’ve got World War II … THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a torrid tour de force!’ James Ellroy

‘Tidhar synthesises the geeky and the political in a vision of world events that breaks new superhero ground… the world-building is so profoundly smart… Comics, of course, have been doing “what if they were real?” for ages, from Alan Moore’s Watchmen to Pat Mills’s Marshal Law. But the politics in Tidhar’s novel are very much about real-world subterfuge… the truly clever thing here is that while the reader has to suspend disbelief in the existence of superheroes, the superheroes themselves struggle to believe in the war, and especially the Holocaust: repeatedly they refer to it as being like a fiction rather than reality. The war becomes, again, something unthinkable. Using fantasy to reassert the awful reality of the 20th century is a smart piece of defamiliarisation.’ The Guardian

THE VIOLENT CENTURY… may be his best yet: a blistering alt-historical retelling of a 20th century lousy with superheroes.’ The Guardian, Best SFF of 2013

‘While perhaps not as politically loaded as OSAMA, Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY… is no less powerful. He imagines a world where superheroes are real. But while the Americans go for the brash costumes and public displays of power, Tidhar’s British heroes – primarily Oblivion and Fog – operate in the shadows, and bear witness to the major events of the 20th century in what is quite simply a stunning masterpiece.’ The Independent

‘Vintage Lavie, and also I think his most fully accomplished novel yet. Nobody rides that fast-rolling wave separating schlocky pulp and serious literary sensibilities so deftly as Tidhar. He manages to make serious points about the benighted twentieth-century and its obsession with ‘supermen’ without ever letting the narrative slacken or the adventure pale. If Nietzche had written an X-Men storyline whilst high on mescaline, it might have read something like THE VIOLENT CENTURY.’ Adam Roberts, author of Jack Glass

‘Good fantasy creates new worlds for us to dream in. Great fantasy, such as THE VIOLENT CENTURY, holds a dark mirror up to these dreams and tests them to the limit… Espionage inhabits a sort of parallel universe. Lavie Tidhar has taken this idea and run with it, creating a sophisticated, moving and gripping take on 20th century conflicts and our capacity for love and hate, honour and betrayal.’Daily Mail

‘[a] high stakes tale of friendship and what it ultimately means to truly be a hero… Tidhar has created a book that oozes excellence in both characterisation and storytelling.’ Huffington Post

‘Something like John le Carré, not as a matter of slavish imitation so much, but rather as an evocation of darkness, idealism turning to exhaustion, and moral ambiguity. The Old Man, Oblivion, Fogg, these are men who have been fighting in the shadows for far too long and whatever sense of right and wrong they started out with is now dangerously suspect… But this is also a novel of alternate history and the world these characters live in is not exactly ours. In fact it may have almost as much in common with the seedy world of Alan Moore’s Watchmen  for all of the characters mentioned so far are actually superhuman… It’s hard, but not impossible as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey and others have shown, to create a morally complex, artistically ambitious story based on characters whose origins are not that far removed from the simplicity of Superman, Spiderman, and their ilk. Tidhar has succeeded brilliantly in this task. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a masterful example of alternate universe science fiction and can only add to its author’s rapidly growing reputation.’ Los Angeles Review of Books

‘The level of detail with which Tidhar fills his novel ensures that the events he is using as his setting feel convincing. Like Le Carre’s best novels, the world of espionage isn’t glamorous or exciting; it’s a grim, cold and lonely place. The author does a lot with a relatively minimalist style, and he envelops us in Transylvanian forests with Count Dracula’s transformed descendant and the frozen battleground of Minsk without ever slowing down… it’s impressive how much ground Tidhar covers. At the centre of this is the question, ‘What makes a hero?’ The supermen of Tidhar’s novel are forced to commit terrible acts in the name of the greater good, and stand by and watch as terrible acts are committed for the same reason. As well as being a wonderfully drawn and detailed historical espionage tale, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is ultimately a very human story. It’s gripping, imaginative and, finally, moving.’ SciFi Now

‘… like Watchmen on crack… the great strength of the book: Tidhar’s examination not of what makes a hero, but how we perceive our heroes… While Tidhar looks at the violent narrative of the twentieth century, he has his eyes firmly planted on how we’ve interpreted the violence in our own real world… There [have] been a number of fantastic novels that have drawn on the mythos of the comic book world, ranging from Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible, but Tidhar’s is probably one of the best prose examinations to really examine the superhero and what they mean…’ io9.com

A MAN LIES DREAMING in Spain…


Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed, award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is out tomorrow in Spain! UN HOMBRE SUEÑA DESPIERTO will be published by Kailas Editorial. Here’s the synopsis…

En el campo de concentración más infame de la historia, un hombre sueña despierto. Se llama Shomer, y antes de la guerra era escritor de novelas pulp. Ahora, para escapar de la brutal realidad de su vida en Auschwitz, pasa sus noches imaginando otro mundo, uno en el que un exdictador llamado Wolf lleva una vida miserable como detective en Londres.

Como toda buena novela negra, la trama comienza en la oficina cutre del detective con la visita de una mujer fatal que requiere sus servicios. Aquí empieza la caída libre del personaje en un proceso de humillación y destrucción. Tras todo tipo de vejaciones, Wolf, Adolf Hitler, acabará transformado en judío, en humano.

El modo en que al final se entrelazan ficción y realidad es sobrecogedor. Una novela fantástica, de ritmo trepidante y muy divertida. Un homenaje inolvidable al poder de la imaginación.

A MAN LIES DREAMING, which won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, is published in the UK by Hodder and PS Publishing, in the US by Melville House., in Italy by Frassinelli, and in Czech by Argo. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Next month, in Spain A MAN LIES DREAMING…


Next month, Kailas Editorial are due to published Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING. Published in Spanish as UN HOMBRE SUEÑA DESPIERTO, here’s the synopsis…

En el campo de concentración más infame de la historia, un hombre sueña despierto. Se llama Shomer, y antes de la guerra era escritor de novelas pulp. Ahora, para escapar de la brutal realidad de su vida en Auschwitz, pasa sus noches imaginando otro mundo, uno en el que un exdictador llamado Wolf lleva una vida miserable como detective en Londres.

Como toda buena novela negra, la trama comienza en la oficina cutre del detective con la visita de una mujer fatal que requiere de sus servicios. Aquí empieza la caída libre del personaje en un proceso de humillación, destrucción y transformación. Tras todo tipo de vejaciones, Wolf, Adolf Hitler, acabará transformado en judío, en humano.

El modo en que al final se entrelazan ficción y realidad es sobrecogedor. Una novela fantástica, de ritmo trepidante y muy divertida. Un homenaje inolvidable al poder de la imaginación.

A MAN LIES DREAMING, which won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, is published in the UK by Hodder, and the US by Melville House. It has also been published in Italy and Czechia. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Lavie is also the author of CENTRAL STATION, published by Tachyon Publications and PS Publishing; THE VIOLENT CENTURY, published by Hodder in the UK and Thomas Dunne in the US; the Bookman Histories steampunk trilogy, published by Angry Robot Books; the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA; and a number of novellas and short stories.

Promotional Comic Art for THE VIOLENT CENTURY in Taiwan!


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To help promote the Taiwanese edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, a promotional comic has been produced! The artwork can be found here, but here are two examples (possibly the front and back covers for the comic)…

tidhar-violentcenturytwn-artcover

The novel is due to be published in Taiwan by Apex as 狂暴年代. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Thomas Dunne and in Japan by 東京創元社 (in two volumes). It is also available in limited edition, published by PS Publishing.

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Lavie Tidhar’s A MAN LIES DREAMING out in Czech!


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The Czech edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is out today! Published by Argo as MUŽ LEŽÍ A SNÍ, here’s the synopsis…

Druhá polovina 30. let 20. století. Evropa je v krizi a Velká Británie se potýká s přílivem uprchlíků. V Německu totiž došlo k Pádu, moci se chopili komunisté, a tak boháči i fašisté, nechtějí-li skončit v trestaneckém táboře, musí utéct za hranice. Většinou se rychle vzpamatují a dál se věnují tomu, na co mají talent, třeba obchodu nebo organizovanému zločinu, ale jistý pan Wolf je muž s ideály, hnusí se mu všeobecný morální úpadek, a zatímco živoří v zaměstnání soukromého detektiva, sní o tom, že už brzy vydá další část svého životního díla, knihy nazvané Můj boj.

Pravda, mezitím si ještě bude muset vytrpět něco sexuálního ponížení v rukou zdegenerovaných prostitutek či špinavé Židovky a párkrát dostane pořádnou nakládačku, ale to muže jeho formátu nezlomí. Zatím v jiném čase a na jiném místě leží muž a sní…

The novel is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House, and in Italy by Frassinelli. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Tidhar-AManLiesDreaming-UK&US&IT

Here is just a handful of great reviews, taken from the many the novel has enjoyed…

‘Comes crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand. This is a shocking book as well as a rather brilliant one… Tidhar’s novel treats its grim theme not as a comedy, although there is plenty of caustic humour, but instead as a pulp-noir tale of seamy city streets, gumshoes and lowlifes… Tidhar gets the outre tone just right… Tidhar, who cut his teeth in the world of genre SF, understands how eloquent pulp can be… [OSAMA] won the World Fantasy award. I wouldn’t be surprised to see A MAN LIES DREAMING repeat that achievement… Like Tarantino, Tidhar may find that some people don’t take him seriously. But the joke’s on them. Seriousness is the least of it: A MAN LIES DREAMING is a twisted masterpiece.’ Guardian

‘Wild, noir-infused alternative history from genre-bender Tidhar… A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.’ Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘…savagely funny… A MAN LIES DREAMING, by the Israeli-born novelist Lavie Tidhar, has not been published with the fanfare bestowed on Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest or Howard Jacobson’s J, but it is their equal for savage humour… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘No one can accuse Lavie Tidhar of being risk-averse… Tidhar reveals – as he did earlier in OSAMA and to some extent in THE VIOLENT CENTURY – that he’s really less interested in the mechanistic ‘‘what-ifs’’ of conventional alternate history than he is in the interpenetration of real and in­vented histories, or perhaps more grandiosely in the interpenetration of art and life – even the often-demeaned art of sensational fiction or (as in the case of THE VIOLENT CENTURY) comic books. This is what makes him such an interesting writer, and what makes A MAN LIES DREAMING quite a bit more complex than it at first appears… the novel is not without a fair amount of humor, and that might well be the boldest risk Tidhar is taking here…’Locus

‘Everything in this genre-bender works; intriguing historical characters are worked into expertly managed plots, and the visceral noir atmosphere is juxtaposed nicely against the drawing-room world of London’s political scene.’ Booklist (Starred Review)

‘A Chandler-esque mystery… a jarring tale of a grim, gray alternative world… Seldom will readers come across fantasy as well conceived and well written as this exceptional novel.’ Library Journal (Starred Review)

Lavie’s latest book, CENTRAL STATION, is published by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes the critically-acclaimed novels THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne), the Bookman Histories trilogy (Angry Robot), and multiple short stories and novellas.

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Czech Edition of A MAN LIES DREAMING out next month!


Tidhar-AManLiesDreamingCZ

Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is due to out at the end of October in Czech. Published by Argo as MUŽ LEŽÍ A SNÍ, here’s the synopsis…

Druhá polovina 30. let 20. století. Evropa je v krizi a Velká Británie se potýká s přílivem uprchlíků. V Německu totiž došlo k Pádu, moci se chopili komunisté, a tak boháči i fašisté, nechtějí-li skončit v trestaneckém táboře, musí utéct za hranice. Většinou se rychle vzpamatují a dál se věnují tomu, na co mají talent, třeba obchodu nebo organizovanému zločinu, ale jistý pan Wolf je muž s ideály, hnusí se mu všeobecný morální úpadek, a zatímco živoří v zaměstnání soukromého detektiva, sní o tom, že už brzy vydá další část svého životního díla, knihy nazvané Můj boj.

Pravda, mezitím si ještě bude muset vytrpět něco sexuálního ponížení v rukou zdegenerovaných prostitutek či špinavé Židovky a párkrát dostane pořádnou nakládačku, ale to muže jeho formátu nezlomí. Zatím v jiném čase a na jiném místě leží muž a sní…

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House, and in Italy by Frassinelli. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Tidhar-AManLiesDreaming-UK&US&IT

Lavie’s latest book, CENTRAL STATION, is published by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes the critically-acclaimed novels THE VIOLENT CENTURY, the Bookman Histories trilogy, and multiple short stories and novellas.

Lavie Tidhar and Anne Lyle’s Nine Worlds 2016 Schedules


NineWorldsGeekfest2016This weekend, Nine Worlds Geekfest 2016 is taking place between August 12-14th, 2016, at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. Two Zeno clients will be in attendance: Lavie Tidhar and Anne Lyle. Here are where you’ll be able to find them…

Lavie Tidhar

Saturday August 13th

  • 10am — “The end of the world, and why we love it” (Reims)
  • 11:45am — “How to Idea” (Cremant)

Lavie’s latest novel, CENTRAL STATION, was published this year by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes A MAN LIES DREAMING, winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House; the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA (PS Publishing); the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne); and the recently re-issued Bookman Histories series (Angry Robot Books).

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Anne Lyle

Saturday August 13th

  • 5pm — “Making and breaking a hero” (Mouton Cadet)

Sunday August 14th

  • 1:30pm — “Writing Utopia” (Bouzy)

Anne Lyle’s critically-acclaimed Night’s Masque trilogy is published by Angry Robot Books, and includes: THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS, THE MERCHANT OF DREAMS and THE PRINCE OF LIES.

LyleA-NightsMasque

Lavie Tidhar’s Signing at Forbidden Planet Next Week


Tidhar-CentralStation2-BlogNext Thursday at 6pm, Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue will host Lavie Tidhar for a signing of his next book, CENTRAL STATION. The highly-anticipated sci-fi tale is published by Tachyon Publications on May 10th. Here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness—are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

Lavie is also the author of the award winning OSAMA and A MAN LIES DREAMING, the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY and The Bookman Histories, and numerous novellas and short stories.

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Lavie Tidhar Talks Writing, Genre, and More


Recently, Lavie Tidhar stopped by the Coode Street Podcast to chat about A MAN LIES DREAMING, his upcoming book CENTRAL STATION and more…

We discussed his sometimes controversial approach to alternate history, the question of borrowing tropes from pulp fiction in portraying serious events such as the Holocaust and terrorism, the importance of American SF writers like Cordwainer Smith, his own experiences growing up in a kibbutz and what he read there, and the never-ending question of genre literature vs “literary” fiction.

Lavie Tidhar won the World Fantasy Award-winning for his novel OSAMA; and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, and a considerable number of short stories and novellas. You can read one of his latest short stories, TERMINAL, is available to read on Tor.com.

THE VIOLENT CENTURY and A MAN LIES DREAMING are both published in the UK by Hodder. A MAN LIES DREAMING is also available in a Limited Edition (PS Publishing), in Italy (Frassinelli) and was published in the US by Melville House, in March 2016. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the US by Thomas Dunne Books. His next book is CENTRAL STATION, which is due to be published in May 2016, by Tachyon Publications — you can read an excerpt over on Tor.com.

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Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY Nominated for Award in Japan!


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Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY has been nominated for the 2016 Seiun Award for Best Translated Novel in Japan! Published as 完璧な夏の日 by Tokyo Sogensha (東京創元社) in Japan (in two parts), here’s the synopsis…

第二次世界大戦の直前、世界各地に突如現れた異能力者たちは各国の情報機関や軍に徴集され、死闘を繰りひろげた。そして現在。イギリスの情報機関を辞して久しい異能力者のひとりフォッグは、かつての相棒と上司に呼び出され、過去を回想する。突然の能力発現、仲間との初めての出会い、終わりなき闘いの日々…

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, and in the US by Thomas Dunne Books. PS Publishing have also released a limited edition. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?

Here is just a small selection from the many great reviews the novel’s received…

THE VIOLENT CENTURY… may be his best yet: a blistering alt-historical retelling of a 20th century lousy with superheroes.’ — The Guardian, Best SFF of 2013

‘Lavie Tidhar’s latest is at once a love story, a tragedy, a spy novel, a memoir of a friendship, an exposé of the horrors of war, and a very serious study of the superhero: the origins of the concept as well as its relative relevance. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a difficult text, yes, but one that gives as good as it gets.’ — Tor.com

‘[A] new masterpiece… a tremendous, unforgettable read… This study in heroism, love, revenge and violence will be in demand by lovers of complex, intelligent sf and alternative history. Anyone who enjoys stories of people with supernatural abilities will thrive reading Tidhar’s world.’ Library Journal

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is about legacy and how heroics play into it, a deeper message than defining what heroics mean: The actions of Fogg and Oblivion have lasting consequences, while at the same time, we can see the weight of the world they’ve helped to build grow on their shoulders. By the end of the book, it’s clear that their own journeys are defined by the actions which they’ve undertaken because it’s what they felt was right, rather than what their orders were.’ — io9.com

‘At the centre of this is the question, ‘What makes a hero?’ The supermen of Tidhar’s novel are forced to commit terrible acts in the name of the greater good, and stand by and watch as terrible acts are committed for the same reason. As well as being a wonderfully drawn and detailed historical espionage tale, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is ultimately a very human story. It’s gripping, imaginative and, finally, moving.’  —  SciFi Now

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(UK, Ltd., US)

A MAN LIES DREAMING Out Tomorrow in the US!


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Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is out tomorrow in the US! Published by Melville House, here’s the synopsis…

A noir thriller with a twist and a Holocaust novel infused with the spirit of shund—the dark Israeli pulp fiction that thrived in the years after World War II — the British Fantasy Award-shortlisted A Man Lies Dreaming is a radical literary experiment that brings alternate history to life. Lavie Tidhar has reimagined the rainy, atmospheric energy of London in the 1930s, and the troubled private detective with an unspeakable secret who roams its streets. As A Man Lies Dreaming unfolds and more of its mysteries come to the surface, we find ourselves drawn into a novel at once gripping and profoundly unsettling.

Critically-acclaimed in the UK already, the novel has also been garnering great praise in the US, too…

‘A Chandler-esque mystery… a jarring tale of a grim, gray alternative world… Seldom will readers come across fantasy as well conceived and well written as this exceptional novel.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘When Tidhar writes of the Holocaust it is with brutal accuracy and a deep sensitivity… it’s poetic and terrible… Many will find elements of this story deeply disturbing, not the least of which is a possible sympathy to Wolf… To top it all of course is Tidhar’s voice itself — at times humorous, at times grim but never frivolous and always taught and controlled… As with his previous novels, Tidhar knows how to say a great deal in very little. There is eloquence and gravitas in the sparseness and brevity of noir fiction when it is good, and Tidhar’s is quite incredible.’ — Tor.com

‘Wild, noir-infused alternative history from genre-bender Tidhar… A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.’ — Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘Everything in this genre-bender works; intriguing historical characters are worked into expertly managed plots, and the visceral noir atmosphere is juxtaposed nicely against the drawing-room world of London’s political scene.’ — Booklist (Starred Review)

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, as a Ltd.Ed. by PS Publishing, and in Italy by Frassinelli.

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A MAN LIES DREAMING Cover Wins Award!


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Lavie Tidhar‘s A MAN LIES DREAMING has racked up yet another award! This time, Ben Summers’s composition for the UK edition has won the Academy of British Cover Design Award in Sci-Fi/Fantasy! The award was announced in the Bookseller.

The novel is published in the UK by Hodder, and is out now. Here’s the synopsis…

The Man in the High Castle for the 21st century, A MAN LIES DREAMING is the award-winning novel by Lavie Tidhar, the next Philip K. Dick.

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Last year, A MAN LIES DREAMING won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award. The novel has also been published as a Limited Edition from PS Publishing, and in Italy via Frassinelli. It is due out in the US next week, published by Melville House (covers below).

Here’s just a small selection of the great reviews A MAN LIES DREAMING has received…

‘Savagely funny… A MAN LIES DREAMING, by the Israeli-born novelist Lavie Tidhar, has not been published with the fanfare bestowed on Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest or Howard Jacobson’s J, but it is their equal for savage humour… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘Like Tarantino, Tidhar may find that some people don’t take him seriously. But the joke’s on them. Seriousness is the least of it: A MAN LIES DREAMING is a twisted masterpiece.’ — Guardian

‘Theodor Adorno said that to write poetry after Auschwitz was barbaric. To which I would say, yes, but you can still write an excellent novel. A MAN LIES DREAMING is that novel.’ — Philip Kerr

‘Absolutely engrossing…a fascinating narrative… a must-read for anyone that likes books that make them think; it is complex, with plenty of meaty themes to mull over…’ — A Fantastical Librarian

‘It’s good. It’s damn good… a tight, masterful creation, an unexpectedly moving work.’ — Jewish Book Council

‘To call this a delightful book, would do it a disservice. None of Shomer’s imagined characters are likeable. He has all kinds of misfortunes befall them, especially Wolf. At the start, a reader might wonder why these men who tried to exterminate Jews, have been given a relatively easy exile compared to the life which Shomer and his fellows are experiencing. Shomer, though, has a very devious fate awaiting Wolf… This is a book that fully deserves to be on an awards shortlist.’ — British Fantasy Society

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Lavie Tidhar’s WOLF Out Now in Italy!


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Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is out now in Italy. Published as WOLF by Frassinelli, here’s the synopsis…

In un altro tempo e luogo, un uomo dorme e sogna.

Londra, 1939. Herr Wolf è un investigatore privato, tedesco. Viene assoldato per ritrovare una ragazza scomparsa. La ragazza è ebrea. Wolf accetta il caso perché ha un disperato bisogno di soldi, ma Wolf odia gli ebrei. È colpa degli ebrei, infatti, se nel 1933 ha dovuto lasciare la Germania; è colpa degli ebrei se i comunisti hanno preso il potere a Berlino e da qui in quasi tutta l’Europa; è colpa degli ebrei se il partito nazista, che avrebbe portato ordine e disciplina, è stato sconfitto e distrutto; è colpa degli ebrei se Wolf e molti dei suoi vecchi camerati sono finiti così, dispersi e braccati. L’indagine porterà Wolf a ripercorrere il suo passato e precipitare nelle sue nevrosi, e condurrà invece il lettore in un gioco di continui spiazzamenti. Niente è come sembra, in questo romanzo, che è a un tempo una grande prova di narrativa ucronica, un noir, un libro perversamente erotico, e un avvincente spaccato della psicologia «nera» e malata del Novecento.

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, as a Limited Edition by PS Publishing, and is due to be published in the US by Melville House in March 2016. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

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Here are some of the rave reviews the novel has received…

‘Like Tarantino, Tidhar may find that some people don’t take him seriously. But the joke’s on them. Seriousness is the least of it: A MAN LIES DREAMING is a twisted masterpiece.’ — Guardian

‘Savagely funny… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘Wild, noir-infused alternative history from genre-bender Tidhar… A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.’ — Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘Lavie Tidhar wrote a novel in which the world has taken a different path, and Hitler, the ruthless executioner, found himself a loser. Just like in a Tarantino movie, the effect is powerful and liberating… Rewriting history, even as a product of imagination, requires a lot of freedom and courage. Those who attempt to do it are often rewarded. In WOLF, Tidhar is not afraid to tell an alternate reality.’ — Rolling Stone (Italy)

‘When Tidhar writes of the Holocaust it is with brutal accuracy and a deep sensitivity… it’s poetic and terrible… To top it all of course is Tidhar’s voice itself — at times humorous, at times grim but never frivolous and always taught and controlled… As with his previous novels, Tidhar knows how to say a great deal in very little. There is eloquence and gravitas in the sparseness and brevity of noir fiction when it is good, and Tidhar’s is quite incredible.’ — Tor.com

Lavie Tidhar’s A MAN LIES DREAMING coming to Italy in January!


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Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning novel, A MAN LIES DREAMING, will be available in Italian this coming January! Due to be published by Frassinelli as WOLF, here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreamingis the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

‘I love this cover,’ Lavie’s written, ‘it catches the essence of the book for me in a very real way, though I have to say I’ve loved all the covers for the book so far.’

Here is just a small selection of the reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Comes crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand. This is a shocking book as well as a rather brilliant one… Like Tarantino, Tidhar may find that some people don’t take him seriously. But the joke’s on them. Seriousness is the least of it: A MAN LIES DREAMING is a twisted masterpiece.’ — Guardian

‘Savagely funny… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘No one can accuse Lavie Tidhar of being risk-averse… such an interesting writer… the novel is not without a fair amount of humor, and that might well be the boldest risk Tidhar is taking here…’ Locus

‘It’s nasty, clever, waspish and witty. It finds room for guest appearances from Leni Riefenstahl, Ian Fleming and Evelyn Waugh and quotations from everyone from Chandler to Ukip… You turn the pages avidly. You read it for the pulp story. And you read it for the frame that surrounds it. And you can’t stop reading.’ — Herald Scotland

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, and as a Limited Edition by PS Publishing. The novel is due to be published in the US by Melville House in March 2016. The novel has won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, and has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award.

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