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FCG International Literature 2007: DAVID GROSSMAN

 “The Jury has unanimously decided to award the Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation’s International Literature Prize 2007 to the Israeli writer David Grossman.  As the creator of innovate language, with tremendous ambition in the construction of his fiction, Grossman is a firm and convinced defender of peace and also of exploring all possible paths that lead to understanding in order to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has been tearing his land apart for decades” According to the jury that met in Valladolid on June 29, 2007, chaired by: Mrs. Mercedes Monmany, literary critic for ABC Newspaper (ABCD Newspaper Supplement on Arts and Literature),and made up by the following members: Mrs. Rosa Pereda de Castro, writer and journalist; Mr. Ángel Sánchez Harguindey, Assistant Editor of El País Newspaper; Mr. José Miguel Santiago Castelo, Deputy Director of ABC Newspaper and Director of the Royal Academy of Extremadura; Mr. Josep Manuel Silva Alcalde, member of the Board of Directors of RTVE [Spanish National Radio and Television Corporation].

DAVID GROSSMAN - Biography

An Israelí writer born in Jerusalem, David Grossman studied Philosophy and Drama in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked in Kol Israel as a radio journalist.  He is considered the most important writer of contemporary Israeli literature and his works have been translated into twenty-six languages.

Among other distinctions, he has received the Grinzane-Cavour, Mondello, Valumbrosa and Sappir literary awards, as well as having been distinguished with the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

He consolidated his career in the 1980s with an intricate style of prose that is structurally complex and in which several narrators appear.  He is the author, among others, of the works entitled Smile of the Lamb (Jiuj hagdí), (1983), in which he analysed life in the West Bank under Israelí occupation; the book was adapted and brought to the big screen; See Under: Love (1986), in which he tackles the topic of the Shoa survivors; Yellow Wind (1987), in which he tells us his personal experience in the occupied territories; The Book of Internal Grammar (1991), Sleeping on a Wire (1992), The Zigzag Kid (1994),  Her Body Knows (2002) and, loyal to his commitment to peace, in 2003 and under the title of Death as a Way of Life, he compiled his own articles that had previously been published in the Press. However, above all he stands out for two of his novels: Someone to Run With (2000) and Be My Knife (2005). In the first one Asaf, a shy 16-year-old boy and Tamar, a solitary and impulsive teenager, set out on a trip towards the limits of courage and generosity and suddenly break with their childhood and discover they are in a universe that is falling apart.  In the second book, a middle-aged bookseller discovers a beautiful woman and by letter proposes they have an exclusively epistolary love affair.  Both of them are married and have children and they become involved in an intense love story that, although maintained only in writing, strongly influences their daily lives.

David Grossman wrote several children’s literature books and some poems.  He composed the lyrics of a song using stickers that appeared in Israel and which was later set to music and sung by the Hadag Najash Rap group.

In 2005 he published “Lion’s Honey” (Dvash araiot), about Sanson and other historical heroes who took a long time to undertsatynd that strength also has its limits and he re-published “Momik”, the first part of his novel “See Under, love”.

Along with Amos Oz, he was one of the promoters of the “Geneva Document”, an initiative of Israelis and Palestinians in favour of peace.

David Grossman is the creator of innovative language that is structurally complex and has been compared to renowned writers such as Günter Grass and Gabriel García Márquez because of his tremendous control over and doses offered of reality and fantasy.  As a convinced pacifist, he is a defender of discovering new ways to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, fighting not only against those who are unwilling to give in to despair but also against those who make it a way of life.

Publications in Spanish:

Lion’s Honey (2007)

Once There Were Two Monkeys [Catalan] (2005)

Be My Knife (2005)

Duel (2003)

Itamar Series (2003)

Death as a Way of Life (2003)

Duel (2002)

Someone to Run With (2002)

The Book of Internal Grammar (2001)

Un niño y su papá (2001)

The Zigzag Kid (1998)

Smile of the Lamb (1995)

Sleeping on a Wire (1994)

See Under: Love (1993)