2024 Sapir and Brenner Prizes winner

THREE DAYS IN SUMMER takes place in a Lithu­anian town between a forest and a river during a serene, golden summer, in a world about to be destroyed.

Ordinary people are living their lives and dreaming their dreams. A frustrated teacher hopes to become a writer and works on his masterpiece. A witch worships at an altar to a pagan god. A store manager is doing good business and secretly cheating on his wife, who, for her part, plans to run away and take their strange child with her. The town’s pharmacist combs the woods for ingredients to make his miracle potions, and in the horse trader’s stable a tall, handsome young man sits tormented by forbidden love. And a squat, balding SS officer races on his motorcycle from city to city and village to village.

THREE DAYS IN SUMMER is a chronicle of one fictional town full of grace and heartbreaking beauty. The novel powerfully recounts the final, agonizing days of the Jewish community in a Lithuanian town. Through penetrating prose, the novel reflects on the fragility of life and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

Rights Sold: Croatia: Fraktura

Reviews:

“In THREE DAYS IN SUMMER, Yossi Avni-Levy explores the enigma of the calm before the storm, the surprising shift from routine in a pastoral setting to a violent historical event. Much like the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, life in the Lithuanian settlement flows gently with its loves, distresses, and affairs, indifferent to the great drama that will change everything. Avni-Levy managed to illuminate an episode from the Holocaust in an innovative way, deliberately straying from the well-trodden path of extensive fiction on the subject. Surprisingly, the writing style is semi-legendary, and the Jewish characters are not at the center. History, thus, becomes timeless, and the timeless and legendary take on a historical dimension. With a fresh and attentive eye for subtleties, Avni-Levy describes a human microcosm that serves as a parable of the absence of humanity alongside humanity for its own sake. Despite the complexity of the subject, Avni-Levy’s writing transitions from prose to poetic expression, soaring from pain to pure beauty.” ―2024 Sapir Prize Judges

“Sensual and poetic approach... Evokes emotions and shock beyond what many similar books have achieved.” ―2024 Brenner Prize Judges