BERNHARDT

​

Yoel Hoffmann

Fiction, 1989

​

In a series of perfectly crystallized segments that are a cross between prose poems and cinematic clips, Yoel Hoffmann reconstructs the world of Bernhardt, a fifty-year-old widower from Berlin who has settled in Palestine. With perfect tone and rhythm, with an uncanny vision and sense of lyricism, Bernhardt himself becomes a universe containing his own history and the history of his time.

 

​

Rights Sold to:

France, Galaade; Germany, Rowohlt; Israel, Keter; USA, New Directions

​

​

Reviews:

“Full of color and rich with a variety of eccentric heroes, in this book Israel of the 1950s becomes a stirring and exciting place.” – A.B. Yehoshua

​

“Hoffmann’s hypnotic prose fuses everyday events and surreal imagery with the lyrical intensity of a Chagall painting.” – Publishers Weekly

​

“Yoel Hoffmann, one of Israel’s brightest and most unusual contemporary fiction writers, creates a powerful and moving novel.” – World Literature Today

​

“[A] further persuasive illustration of the genius of one of Israel’s finest contemporary writers.” – Kirkus Reviews

​

​