Nava Semel

A grandmother in Tel Aviv shares with her granddaughter her tragic life story as a child hidden in a pit with only a rat for company. A future anthropologist, researching the story's mysterious roots in 2099, discovers Father Stanislaw's personal journal documenting his rescue of that little Jewish girl.

And the Rat Laughed

Seen through the eyes of an illiterate twelve-year-old boy, Nava Semel's moving, at times lyrical fiction explores life in the Palestine of the 1930s - a world where a young Jew is prepared to undertake multiple marriages to threatened East European women for patriotic reasons alone; where a boy's closest friends are a dog named after his hero Johnny Weissmuller (the screen Tarzan of blessed memory), his brother's first wife, and the girl next door. Semel weaves a rich evocation of love and pain and promises, written with eloquent humanity and verve.

Paper Bride

On the last day of 1999, a survivor grandmother in Tel Aviv shares with her granddaughter her tragic life story as a child hidden in a pit, with only a rat for company. The granddaughter tells the legend of ''Girl and Rat'' to her teacher; in 2009 those who heard it through her classmates establish an internet website with poems. From now on this memory is spread all over the world and becomes a myth. A future anthropologist, researching its mysterious roots in 2099, discovers Father Stanislaw's personal journal documenting his rescue of that little Jewish girl, and so the chain of remembearers moves from the present to the future and back to the past.

Easyread Large Bold Edition

Stella Rollig

Thomas Edlinger

Face it

A love story as implausible as this must be true. Their first date was arranged by a professional matchmaker. A deal, a pragmatic matter that had nothing to do with romance - that's how it all began. Not long after the engagement was settled, Gabriel was sent to war. The year was 1914. Like Penelope and her Odysseus, Fanny waited for him. This was just the beginning of a romance spanning seven decades of passion and rage, desire and contempt, estrangement and attraction. This love story, set against a backdrop of the major historical events of the twentieth century, is also the story of the era's biggest Jewish dilemma: the choice between the promise of life in America and a new Jewish state in Palestine. While Fanny and Gabriel find themselves on opposite sides of this conflict, fate reunites them. Both a torment and an anchor, their love is an ember that never dies. Fanny and Gabriel are more than just incredible characters - they were author Nava Semel's very own grandmother and grandfather. With her unique literary talent, Semel weaves and reconstructs their story, piecing together the fragments of their extraordinary life. Fanny and Gabriel was first published in Israel in July 2017, just a few months before Semel's death. It topped the best seller lists, received rave reviews, and found an adoring audience of readers.

Fanny and Gabriel

Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

Hadara's small Israeli village has one of everything: one grocer, one nurse, and one junk dealer. Hadara's only distinction is that she's the only child without a mother. She decides that it's time to make a name for herself and escape her loneliness. Monsieur Maurice, the village shoemaker, sparks Hadara's imagination by telling her about Jews in his homeland who could fly. Hadara cajoles him into giving her flying lessons. But as her lessons go on, Hadara learns that she can't escape from the loneliness of not having a mother. Flying Lessons is a poignant coming-of-age story that explores the importance of dreams and reality, and the delicate balance between them.

Flying Lessons

Living in Tel-Aviv in 1958, twelve-year-old Gershona experiences first love, learns a family secret, and crosses the line between childhood and adulthood.

Becoming Gershona

Equal parts detective novel, historical fantasia, and alternate history, Isra Isle offers a compelling exploration of modern Jewish identity.

Nava Semel

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