Love in Israel

Love is the theme of Ang-Lit.Press's fourth fiction anthology. The successor to Israel Short Stories and Tel Aviv Short Stories, the new anthology is a salute/tribute to Israel's 65th anniversary. Though the settings and themes are quintessentially Israeli, the narrative voice is that of the "insider/outsider" - the Anglo (English-speaking) resident. The more than 45 authors are expatriates from the U.K, USA, Canada, South Africa, India, etc. Many of the stories reflect Israel's complicated reality. One story explores how love is not enough to breach the political void between an Israeli soldier and her American boyfriend. Another deals with a young woman insisting on naming her son after her childhood sweetheart - an Arab boy named Aziz. There's a Ukrainian bride who falls in love in Jerusalem ... but not with her Israeli groom. An apartment owner who exacts a fitting revenge on the woman who cheated her out of the mountain view she loves. An unlikely romance between an American ulpan student and a battle-hardened vet of the Soviet special forces. A mother whose liberal Zionism is tested by her son's romantic choices - a Sephardic Jew and an Arab. And a rabbi who gives his blessing to a married man's affair, with tragic results. Though the stories are presented under six geographical headings - Haifa & The North; Jerusalem; Tel Aviv; Somewhere/Anywhere in Israel; The Kibbutz /Moshav; The Desert - the stories can and should be read in any order. "A major advantage of a short story anthology like ours," says Ang-Lit. co-founder/editor Shelley Goldman, " is that there is no chronological order. You can jump from Haifa, to the Negev, wherever, whenever you fancy. The stories, like their 45 authors, reflect and celebrate the vast diversity of readers' tastes and interests. It is the perfect genre for the frenetic 21st century - an instant literary fix for commuters, bedtime or occasional readers.