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And This is the Light A Novel by Lea Goldberg

SKU 978-1592642298
Original price $24.95 - Original price $24.95
Original price
$24.95
$24.95 - $24.95
Current price $24.95
And This Is the Light, is the first English edition of Lea Goldberg's only novel, published in 2011 to coincide with what would have been Goldberg's 100th birthday. It is set in the summer of 1931, when twenty-year-old Nora Krieger returns to her small-town home in Lithuania from university in Berlin ready to present her new, mature self. Instead, her time at home becomes a period of unrequited love, difficult memories and introspection, when she must accept the limits imposed on her by a class-conscious, increasingly anti-Semitic society. And This Is the Light is a lyrical coming-of-age story by one of Israel's most important writers. Translated by Barbara Harshav and with an introduction and afterword by Nili Scarf Gold.

Lea Goldberg

Leah Goldberg (1911-1970) was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, and comparative literary researcher. 

Goldberg worked as a high-school teacher and earned a living writing rhymed advertisements until she was hired as an editor by the Hebrew newspapers Davar and Al HaMishmar. She also worked as a children's book editor at Sifriyat Po'alim publishing house, while also writing theatre reviews and literary columns. In 1954 she became a literature lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, advancing to senior lecturer in 1957 and full professor in 1963, when she was appointed head of the university's Department of Comparative Literature.

Goldberg wrote Hebrew poetry, drama, and children's literature. Goldberg's books for children, among them "A Flat for Rent" (dira lehaskir) and "Miracles and Wonders" (nisim uniflaot), have become classics of Hebrew-language children's literature.

With exemplary knowledge of seven languages, Goldberg also translated numerous foreign literary works exclusively into Modern Hebrew from Russian, Lithuanian, German, Italian, French, and English.

Her writings are considered classics of Israeli literature.

Lea Goldberg is one of Israel's most beloved writers; her poems, plays and children's books have been translated into many languages, and are part of the canon of Israeli literature.
She was born in Königsberg, East Prussia in 1911 and received a PhD in Semitic Languages from Bonn University before immigrating to Palestine in 1935. Best known as a poet, Goldberg was the author of children's books, plays and essays. She was also a theater critic, editor, translator and founder of Hebrew University's Department of Comparative Literature, where she served as chairperson for nearly twenty years. Goldberg was awarded many prizes, including the Israel Prize for Literature, posthumously, in 1970. The State of Israel will issue a banknote with Goldberg s image in 2012.