Adama

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THERE IS NO LAND WITHOUT BLOOD, AND I WATER THIS LAND WITH THE BLOOD OF MY MEN. Ruths 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 elses. 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. 'Tidhar [is] fast emerging as the leader of a new wave of Israeli literature' Daily Mail 'Adama is an unstoppable masterpiece... If history is a nightmare were all trying to wake up from, then Adama is a trumpet blast that rings out the past and into the future' Junot Daz '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

Reviews

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 were all trying to wake up from, then ADAMA is a trumpet blast that rings out the past and into the future. -- Junot Daz
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
A brutal but compassionate and compelling view of the compromises required to sustain a nation -- Maxim Jakubowski
This violent, shadowy history of a kibbutz family makes for a propulsive, decades-spanning noir saga. I couldnt put it down. -- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The prolific Tidhar [is] fast emerging as the leader of a new wave of Israeli literature, thanks to his risky, exhilarating experiments with tone and genre... Tidhar's imagination is both Old Testament through and through, and sick with a 21st-century disenchantment * Daily Mail *
A brilliantly unsentimental portrayal, full of moral murkiness and tarnished hopes, with small, half-glimpsed bursts of joy -- Antonia Senior * The Times *
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 *
PRAISE FOR MAROR: 'A sprawling epic set across four decades, and an audacious account of the underbelly of nation-building... Spectacular... Fascinating... Astonishing... Maror is a masterpiece of the sacred and the profane... Tidhar has achieved a literary triumph' Jake Arnott, Guardian. '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 Daz. '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. 'Radiant with [...] the richly nuanced complexity and style of Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings... Will catch your breath as it presents the history of Israel from unique points of view, with dazzling multi-generational scope' * LoveReading *
A Times 'best historical fiction novel' for 2023': A novel of immense power * The Times *
A brilliant follow-up to Maror ... Extraordinary storytelling * Tim Pears *

Author Bio

Lavie Tidhar was born just ten miles from Armageddon and grew up on a kibbutz in northern Israel. He has since made his home in London, where he is currently a Visiting Professor and Writer in Residence at Richmond University. He won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize for Best British Fiction, was twice longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Award and the Rome Prize. He co-wrote Art and War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction, and is a columnist for the Washington Post.