Zeruya Shalev

Leading author Zeruya Shalev was born at Kibbutz Kinneret. She has an MA in Biblical studies and works as a literary editor at Keter Publishing House. Her novels Love Life, Husband and Wife (nominated in 2002 for Prix Femina), Late Family  (Thera) and The Remains of Love have received critical acclaim both in Israel and abroad and have been bestsellers in several countries. 

Love Life is included in Der Spiegel's prestigious list of "20 Best Novels in World Literature" over the last 40 years, together with Saul Bellow, J. M. Coetzee and Philip Roth. Husband and Wife was included in the French Fnac list of the "200 Best Books of the Decade." The Remains of Love won the French prestigious Prix Femina Etranger (2014). The novel was also featured in The Independent's Books of the Year in Translation (2013) and was nominated for the Prix Medicis in the category of foreign literature (France, 2014).
Shalev has been awarded the Book Publishers Association's Gold and Platinum Prizes for her bestselling novels, the Corine Prize (Germany, 2001), the Amphi Award (France, 2003), the ACUM Prize twice (1997; 2005), the French Wizo Prize (2007), the Welt-Literature Prize (Germany, 2012), the Prime Minister's Prize (2014) the Rome-Jerusalem Prize (Italy, 2014), the Prix Femina (France, 2014), the ADEI-WIZO Prize (Italy, 2017) and the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature (Switzerland, 2019) for Pain. A feature film of Love Life, produced in Germany, was released in 2008, and in 2017 she received the prestigious French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres decoration. Her books have been published in 27 languages.

A writer of elemental powers, whose coursing language washes up fragments from the deepest recesses of human existence.
Die Welt

Zeruya Shalev is an archeologist of the soul.
Le Monde

“Zeruya Shalev is one of my favorite contemporary writers, her work always spiky and original, and Pain is a searing book, a wild and ravenous story of family entanglement and impossible yearning.”

Lauren Groff, author of Florida and Fates and Furies

“Shalev reminds readers in keen, often brilliant prose that love, like pain, is indelible…a riveting exploration of family, sex and motherhood.”

New York Times Book Review

“Always incisive on the complexities of family and relationship dynamics…Shalev plunges the reader into a whirlwind story of impossible choices.”

The Guardian, Best New Books in Translation

“Shalev is a vivid and impassioned writer.”

Kirkus Reviews

“With its heady musings on what makes love pure, Pain is a blistering novel that pits passion against ordinary commitments.”

Foreword Reviews

“A complex meditation on the intricate ripples of cause and effect in our lives.”

Booklist

“A midlife crisis novel with a lot of meditation over choice and chance and how they impact what follows, this story by Shalev…effectively depicts contemporary Israeli life.”

Library Journal