Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed novel MAROR is out today in a new German edition! Published by Suhrkamp, it was translated by Conny Lösch. Here’s the synopsis…
Israel, 1974-2008. Zwei Polizisten führen uns durch fast vier Jahrzehnte israelischer Geschichte. Cohen, der Strippenzieher im Hintergrund, und Avi Sagi, der den korrumpierenden Versuchungen seines Jobs nicht widerstehen kann. Diese Geschichte ist die dunkle Geschichte Israels. Der Patriot Cohen kennt nur eine Aufgabe – seinen Staat zu beschützen, auch wenn er dafür die bittersten Realitäten akzeptieren muss und gnadenlos danach handelt. Cohen und Sagi haben es mit jüdischen, arabischen und türkischen Gangstern, mit der CIA und dem KGB, mit den Contras und den Kartellen, mit militanten Orthodoxen und anderen Playern mehr zu tun. Cohen versucht, »die Dinge in der Balance zu halten«, und kennt dabei keine Grenzen.
Tidhar entwirft ein gewaltiges, kaleidoskopisches Panorama aus politischen Skandalen, Korruption, Mord und Verbrechen auf staatlicher und privater Ebene, das sich auch auf die weltweiten Aktivitäten Israels bezieht. Ein Epos, das zu Recht mit Balzac und Dickens verglichen wurde. Ein Epos auch über Moral und Realpolitik, eine Art Chronique scandaleuse Israels und ein grimmiges, schwarz-humoriges Plädoyer für dessen Existenzrecht. Maroreben, wie die bitteren Kräuter auf dem Sederteller: »Mit bitteren Kräutern sollen sie es essen.« (Exodus, 12:8)
MAROR is the first novel in Tidhar’s Matter of Israel series, and is published in the UK by Head of Zeus/Apollo. The second novel, ADAMA, is also out now.
Here’s MAROR‘s English-language synopsis…
How do you build a nation?
It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen.
Nation-building demands sacrifice. And one man knows exactly where those bodies are buried: Cohen, a man who loves his country. A reasonable man for unreasonable times.
A car bomb in the back streets of Tel Aviv. A diamond robbery in Haifa. Civil war in Lebanon. Rebel fighters in the Colombian jungle. A double murder in Los Angeles.
How do they all connect? Only Cohen knows.
Maror is the story of a war for a country’s soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents.
It is a true story. All of these things happened.
The novel, which was a Guardian and Economist Best Book of 2022, has received an incredible amount of praise since it was published. Here’s just a small selection…
‘Some write in ink, others in song, Tidhar writes in fire… MAROR is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece, immense in its sympathies, alarming in its irreverences and altogether exhilarating.’ — Junot Díaz
‘One of the boldest, most visionary writers I’ve ever read creates both a vivid political exploration and a riveting crime epic. It’s like the Jewish Godfather!’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia
‘A masterpiece of the sacred and the profane … a literary triumph.’ — Guardian
‘Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness… Fade[s] into oblivion compared with Lavie Tidhar’s magnificent novel MAROR, a panoramic look at four decades of the dark, despicable side of Israel, of death, corruption, violence and drugs… It’s a brilliant undertaking.’ — Jewish Chronicle
‘One of the sensational novels of 2022, a violent rollercoaster and drug-fuelled ride into Israel’s history’ — Jewish Chronicle (as part of ADAMA review)
‘MAROR blends the page-turning wit of a hard-boiled detective noir with the stirring intrigue of a multi-national political epic. An ambitious achievement that weaves a tapestry of both story and statement.’ — Kevin Jared Hosein
‘A bloody beast of a book… MAROR is to Israeli history what Tarantino is to American movie culture’ — Daily Mail
‘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)
‘Radiant with all the brutally elegant atmosphere of crime noir, and the richly nuanced complexity and style of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, it’s a genre-busting novel that will catch your breath … At once illuminating, thrilling and thought-provoking, this tale of corruption, killings, sacrifice and the souls that make up a nation is a symphonic feat of fiction.’ — LoveReading
