On April 1, 1933 the Nazis refused my mother entrance to the Eppensdorff Hospital in Hamburg where she worked. At my father's clinic they hung a sign "Do not go to Jewish doctors." This was the day my mother said to my father, "This is the end for Jews in this country, let's get married and go to Palestine."

Three years later I was born in Petah Tikva, in a small house with a large yard. My parents, unable to find work as doctors, grew bees and made their living from honey.

The large yard was a paradise. There were banana and other fruit trees, chickens, horses, even snakes. There was a war going on in the world and people were frightened, but my parents would take me to the beehives in the fields and I was surrounded by grass and flowers. And the birds sang. If my parents had any worries, I certainly never knew of them, and if food was scarce, I asked the neighbors for bread. I asked in German, the language my parents spoke. I have happy memories of the times I held my father's hand as we walked to the synagogue on Friday evenings. I loved the songs they sang and the Kiddush my father said at home. I especially enjoyed the German melodies for Grace after meals. I also loved sitting next to my father at the soccer field on Saturday afternoons. Eventually he began to treat the neighboring Arabs and traveled from village to village. I was very proud when the sheiks or the farmers came to our house to ask his advice. When I was sick my father would paint me pictures with water colors - he was blessed with many talents - and tell me stories. That is why I decided to be an artist and a writer when I grew up.

It all ended a year after the war was over when my father fell ill and my mother told me that after the third heart attack, my father would die. So I began waiting.

My father died when I was fourteen years, and the event changed my life. My mother said, "First of all, you need to have a profession. Art comes later." I went to Jerusalem to study at the Teachers College. There I began to draw and write. I excelled in Bible studies, a book I still read and which serves as my first and foremost inspiration. After my studies I enlisted in the army. During difficult times, I read English poetry and translated T.S. Eliot into Hebrew. I love English poetry, and still occasionally do translations. After my military service I began studying at Tel Aviv University. I became addicted to Philosophy, with Plato, Nietsche and Sartre providing my spiritual nourishment. Schopenhauer was outstandingly influential. During this time I read the great Russian authors with a passion, with Dostoevsky exerting particular influence. Over the years, his greatest students - William Faulkner and Patrick White - have influenced my writing.

My literary studies led me to teaching and my philosophy studies led me to writing. My first story was published in Ha'aretz newspaper in 1967, and that same year I began working on the staff of the literary magazine. To this day I work at the newspaper. I also conduct creative writing workshops, give lectures and am involved in a variety of other activities.

My first novel, The Exile (1971), was the result of a trip to Germany in my father's footsteps. From this time on I began writing stories, novels, and books for children and youth. I was awarded the Brenner prize for my novel Roots of Light, and I was also awarded the Education Ministry and Haifa University prizes for two other young adult books, The Silver Ball and Gypsies in the Orchard. The Silver Ball for which I was awarded with a certificate of excellency from the Austrian Education Ministry was declared one of the ten best books of the year. I was also awarded the Yad Veshem award for my most recent book, My Journey with Alex. The fate of children in WWII intrigues me, and often appears in my writings.

I believe a writer creates from words just as a painter creates art from his paints and brushstrokes, as the composer creates art from sounds. I believe that the way a writer handles language determines the content. I consider the linguistic shaping, or as the Kabbalists put it "speech," to be above all else. My central theme has always been myths and how each generation re-designs them, how people are shaped by them and how these myths influence their actions and lives.

I have published 19 books to date. This year my twentieth book, a work dealing with the mythology of the woman, will be published.