Foiglman

The novel revolves around the encounter between an Israeli professor of Jewish history and a Yiddish poet from France, a Holocaust survivor. Two distinct mentalities meet – the new Israeli culture versus the Jewish Diaspora tradition. The professor is entangled in a peculiar friendship, his marriage breaks up and he drives his wife to suicide. The poet tries to strike roots in Israel, suffers from his literary failure in the new milieu and dies of an illness originating in his years in a concentration camp. The novel is written as a first-person account by the professor, set against the social and cultural background of present-day Israel.


A great work, and heartbreaking as well... Foiglman is a great and tragic character, but wonderfully real, irritable and likeable... It's a profound work.
Author Alan Sillitoe

Extraordinarily accomplished fiction – subtle, complex, and as well-constructed as a Bach fugue… genuine literary magic glows. That Foiglman works as well as it does is a credit to Megged’s artistry.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Another masterpiece.... The feelings Megged recalls - suspicion, regret, nostalgia - are powerful... Sadness and bitterness are his strong points, not his faults. His writing is meticulous.
Journal de Genève