The German edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed novel ADAMA is out now! Published by Suhrkamp, it was translated by Conny Lösch and edited by Thomas Wörtche. Here’s the synopsis…

1946 beginnt die junge Ruth, sich in Palästina ein neues Leben aufzubauen, getrieben von jugendlichen Idealen in einem Land, das ihr feindlich gesinnt ist. Sie ist eine ungarische Zionistin, die, anders als die meisten Mitglieder ihrer Familie, den Nazis in Budapest entkommen konnte. Ruth wird das Herz des Kibbuz Trashim, und für sie ist der Kibbuz heilig, heilige Erde, also »Adama«, seine Existenz ist ihre Lebensaufgabe. Wenn dafür knallharte Entscheidungen nötig sind, dann wird sie sie…

The novel is published in the UK by Apollo/Head of Zeus. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

THERE IS NO LAND WITHOUT BLOOD, AND I WATER THIS LAND WITH THE BLOOD OF MY MEN.

Ruth’s family were in Budapest when the Nazis came.

Now Ruth is in Palestine, amid the bare hills inland from Haifa, breaking the rocky soil of an unyielding land before it breaks her.

With her comrades, her fellow kibbutzniks, she will build a better world. There will be green grass, orange trees and pomegranates, a land that is their own and no one else’s.

So they till their fields, dig their wells, build their homes and forge a new way of living, fiercely proud of their shared pursuit of a dream.

But as one generation begets another, the dream unravels, twisted into a dark tapestry of secrets and lies; sacrificed for revenge, forbidden love and murder.

A sweeping historical epic following four generations of a single family as they struggle to hold on to their land and each other.

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

‘ADAMA is an unstoppable masterpiece… Tidhar is a magician, a time-traveler, a historian, a comedian, a raconteur, a subversive, a truth teller and also one of the finest writers around. If history is a nightmare we’re all trying to wake up from, then ADAMA is a trumpet blast that rings out the past and into the future.’ — Junot Diaz

‘ADAMA is the second in an ambitious trilogy about the tumultuous birth of Israel, but can be read as a standalone. It is a brilliantly unsentimental portrayal, full of moral murkiness and tarnished hopes, with small, half-glimpsed bursts of joy.’ — The Times (UK), Best Historical Fiction of the Month

‘A novel of immense power that resists easy answers to difficult questions.’ — The Times

‘Word by word I was drawn deeper and deeper into this incredible book – a story of inheritance, loss, longing and what could have been. Lavie Tidhar’s prose is beautiful, his characters lacerating and heartbreaking by turns. I loved it.’ — Catriona Ward

‘Comparisons to James Ellroy and Marlon James are valid… On every page we feel we’re among real, breathing people… [a] compelling, unflinching roman-fleuve.’ — Times Literary Supplement (joint review of ADAMA and MAROR)

‘As a study of biblical comeuppance, the land and the blood have the last say. I recommend Adama as an instructive primer for today’s generation of Israeli politicians. There are, indeed, lessons to be learned.’ — Jewish Chronicle

‘This violent, shadowy history of a kibbutz family makes for a propulsive, decades spanning noir saga. I couldn’t put it down.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia

‘A brutal but compassionate and compelling view of the compromises required to sustain a nation, with smugglers, gangsters, idealists, soldiers and crooked cops caught in the web of history.’ — Maxim Jakubowski

‘A brutal but compassionate and compelling view of the compromises required to sustain a nation… at times reminiscent of the word torrents of a James Ellroy in full flow, but with a larger sense of profane passion… the interlaced stories truly grip as connections appear in the shadows of history. Powerful stuff.’ — Crime Time

Tidhar’s latest novel is GOLGOTHA, which is out now — also published by Apollo/Head of Zeus.