Assaf Gavron

Assaf Gavron (born 1968 in Arad, Israel) – prominent Israeli novelist, translator and musician. He has published eight novels, including the acclaimed satirical work The Hilltop (2013), and Almost Dead (2006).A prolific translator, he has translated over 20 major works from English to Hebrew, including books by J.D. Salinger, Philip Roth, and Jonathan Safran Foer.

Almost Dead (aka CrocAttack!): This novel is described as a “fast-paced tragicomedy” and a “virtuoso work” that uses elements of a thriller. It alternates between the perspectives of Eitan “Croc” Enoch, an Israeli man who inadvertently becomes a national hero after surviving multiple terrorist attacks, and Fahmi Sabih, a young Palestinian man drawn into a terrorist cell.It is described as “fast as a thriller” and incorporates a “sense of suspense” through its dual storyline and exploration of the chaos and terror of life during the second Intifada.

Eighteen Lashes: This novel (not yet translated into English) is explicitly described on the author’s website as a “historical literary thriller”. A modern-day Uber-like cab driver in Tel Aviv gets drawn into a “detective journey” involving four octogenarian protagonists, two potential murder cases, and a complex web of historical and personal blame related to the violent 1940s in Israel. It features “thrilling twists” and is structured as a “detective story” with an amateur sleuth. [Google/AI]

Gavron, Assaf, (Almost Dead: A Witty and Provocative Tragicomic Tale of Terror and Identity in Israel [pb, Harper Perennial, transl. by Assaf Gavron & James Lever, 2010] 978-0061984044