A. B. Yehoshua was nominated for:
Yehuda Kaminka, a retired teacher, returns to Israel from the U.S. to divorce his estranged wife who is in a mental asylum, having tried to kill him a few years earlier. The impending divorce of their parents throws into turmoil the lives of the couple’s three children and grandson, revealing the complexity of their relationships.
Yehuda’s nine days, leading up to Passover, are remembered by different members of the family: A.B. Yehoshua’s brilliance reveals itself in these different voices, each a minor masterpiece.
A picture slowly emerges of what happened as memories are revived, hopes expressed and dreams articulated. The narrative gathers pace as Yehuda’s visit draws to an end and he changes his mind about the divorce agreement.
Long out of print, A Late Divorce was A. B. Yehoshua’s second novel which fulfilled all the promise of The Lover, his first. A.B. Yehoshua has been shortlisted for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005 in recognition of his lifetime’s achievement.
Born in Jerusalem in 1936, A. B. Yehoshua is the author of The Lover, The Continuing Silence of a Poet, Mr Mani, Open Heart, A Journey to the End of the Millennium and The Liberated Bride. He is one of Israel’s pre-eminent novelists and has been awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for his lifetime’s creative contribution to Israel, the National Jewish Book Award in the US and the Jewish Quarterly–Wingate Prize in the UK.
'In his fiction, Mr Yehoshua is subtle, indirect and sometimes visionary, even phantasmagoric'.
Harold Bloom, The New York Times
'… thank goodness for a novel that is ambitious and humane and that is about things that really matter'
New Statesman
'Anyone who has had experience of the sad and subtle ways in which human beings torment one another under licence of family ties will appreciate the merits of A. B. Yehoshua’s A Late Divorce'.
London Review of Books
'…there is something Chekhovian about Yehoshua’s affectionate impartiality toward his characters, who like Chekhov’s, combine hopeless, maddening egotism with noble impulses and redeeming outbursts of affection'.
Gabriele Annan, The New York Review of Books
'He is a master storyteller whose tales reveal the inner life of a vital, conflicted nation'.
Wall Street Journal
