Aharon Appelfeld Contemporary Israeli writer Date of Birth: 16.02.1932 Country: Israel

Biography of Aharon Appelfeld

Aharon Appelfeld is a contemporary Israeli writer and one of the nominees for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013. Although less than one percent of people on the planet speak Hebrew today, the percentage of outstanding authors writing in this recently revived language is incredibly high. Appelfeld is one of them, having successfully adapted the holy language to the realities of the modern world and the tragic experience of the Holocaust.

Born on February 12, 1932, in the village of Sadhora, which is now part of Chernivtsi, Ukraine, Appelfeld was raised in a Jewish family. In the 1930s, the territory belonged to Romania, and with the start of World War II, the villages were quickly occupied, and Jews were deported to concentration camps. The same fate befell Appelfeld's family: his mother was killed by Romanian soldiers during one of the raids, and he, an 8-year-old boy at the time, was sent to a camp with his father. Fortunately, Appelfeld managed to escape from the camp and spent the next three years working as a cook in one of the divisions of the Soviet army. His attempts to find out his father's fate only brought him disheartening news: almost all the Jews in the camp were shot, and the escapees perished in the forests.

Soon after the end of the war, without hesitation, Appelfeld decided to immigrate to Palestine to settle in the Holy Land and the Jewish homeland. He spent a couple of years in Italy, waiting for immigration, where he learned Italian - his sixth language at that time - and began to study Hebrew, the resurrected sacred language and the first official language of the first Jewish state in the world. Hebrew became a revelation for him: its clear grammar and the laconic style inherent in the Bible made it the perfect language for literary creation, and Appelfeld's first stories were written in Hebrew.

In 1946, he arrived in Palestine to join thousands of other Jews in building the new state of Israel. But even more miraculously, Appelfeld accidentally noticed his father's name in the papers while at the Jewish agency, whom he believed to be dead for many years. They reunited a few days later. In Israel, Appelfeld completed his secondary education and enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At the same time, he continued to write short stories, focusing on the lives of Jews during the war and the Holocaust. Unlike many other authors, Appelfeld did not attempt to tell the stories of individuals; instead, the Holocaust became the background for completely different stories and characters in his works. Many of his works are based on his own life, specifically, how a child experiences the death of both parents in the war.

Overall, Appelfeld has authored 17 novels and numerous short stories and essays. One of his most famous works is the novel 'Badenheim 1939', which depicts the lives of Austrian Jews before the war. Appelfeld has been awarded various prizes for his works, including honorary membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize but did not make it to the longlist. Today, Appelfeld resides in Israel, near Jerusalem. He teaches literature at several universities in the country and also conducts master classes for aspiring writers. It is known that Appelfeld is a close friend of the renowned Jewish writer Philip Roth, who also lives in Israel.