Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

Con­grats are in order for 2007 Sami Rohr Prize Choice Award recip­i­ent Michael Lav­i­gne (Not Me), who has a new book com­ing out! The book was acquired by Deb­o­rah Gar­ri­son and will be pub­lished by Schock­en Books. A short descrip­tion (with the book’s work­ing title, Kor­ban–we’ll update you when we have the final title and pub­li­ca­tion date!) can be found below. It’s nice hav­ing things like this to look for­ward to…

Set against the back­drop of the Israeli-Pales­tin­ian con­flict, KOR­BAN is the sto­ry of a father and daugh­ter torn apart by ide­ol­o­gy and sec­tar­i­an vio­lence as well as the ter­ri­ble secrets of fam­i­ly his­to­ry. The father, a Sovi­et immi­grant in Israel, is injured in a sui­cide bomb­ing — this event shat­ters not only his body, but his soul, and he is com­pelled to relive and come to terms with his past in Moscow, as well as try to heal his daugh­ter who has been dam­aged by that secret past — and, at the same time it is his des­per­ate search to find some shred of com­mon ground with, and empa­thy for, the young man who blew him­self up. 

Told in three voic­es, one of which is an irre­press­ible thir­teen year old and anoth­er a dis­em­bod­ied shahid, it’s a tale replete with talk­ing ani­mals, fairy tales, roam­ing spir­its, vision­ary rev­e­la­tion and a med­i­ta­tion on the yearn­ing for home and the pow­er of love to destroy — and to heal.