* The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories (Oxford UP, 1996).  Edited by Glenda Abramson. -- PDF

This anthology of Hebrew short stories provides an excellent introduction to the richness and diversity of Israeli fiction.  The extraordinary revival of Hebrew as a spoken language at the turn of the twentieth century led to an explosion of literary activity that eventually drew a clear line of progression from the Jewish writers of Eastern Europe to their modern descendants in present-day Israel.

From a narrative whose concerns were predominantly historical and religious, Hebrew fiction has grown to embrace the modern world and to deal with subjects such as daily life in a small Jewish town, intellectual disillusionment, and the huge political changes with which Jewish writers have had to come to terms following the establishment of the State of Israel.  War inevitably features often in these 33 stories which reflect, more than the literature of any other country, the social and political dilemmas of a multifarious culture.  Alongside the grand themes are more intimate explorations of human relationships, and of individual triumph and anguish within the complexities of twentieth-century life.

Arranged in rough chronological order, the anthology charts the movement from a naturalistic tradition, heavy with political themes and social commitment, through the emergence of a New Wave -- led by A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz -- that stressed more individualistic themes and even questioned Zionist ideology.  Editor Abramson provides capsule biographies of each author and a valuable introduction that traces the historical and political issues behind the development of Israeli literature.