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THERE IS NO LAND WITHOUT BLOOD, AND I WATER THIS LAND WITH THE BLOOD OF MY MEN.Ruth's family were in Budapest when the Nazis came.
Now Ruth is in Palestine, amid the bare hills inland from Haifa, breaking the rocky soil of an unyielding land before it breaks her.
With her comrades, her fellow kibbutzniks, she will build a better world. There will be green grass, orange trees and pomegranates, a land that is their own and no one else's.
So they till their fields, dig their wells, build their homes and forge a new way of living, fiercely proud of their shared pursuit of a dream.
But as one generation begets another, the dream unravels, twisted into a dark tapestry of secrets and lies; sacrificed for revenge, forbidden love and murder.
A sweeping historical epic following four generations of a single family as they struggle to hold on to their land and each other.'Tidhar [is] fast emerging as the leader of a new wave of Israeli literature'
Daily Mail'
Adama is an unstoppable masterpiece... If history is a nightmare we're all trying to wake up from, then
Adama is a trumpet blast that rings out the past and into the future'
Junot Díaz'Word by word I was drawn deeper and deeper into this incredible book - a story of inheritance, loss, longing and what could have been. Lavie Tidhar's prose is beautiful, his characters lacerating and heartbreaking by turns. I loved it.'
Catriona Ward
About the author
Lavie Tidhar's work encompasses literary fiction (Maror, Adama and the forthcoming Six Lives), cross-genre classics such as Jerwood Prize winner A Man Lies Dreaming (2014) and World Fantasy Award winner Osama (2011) and genre works like the Campbell and Neukom prize winner Central Station (2016). He has also written comics (Adler, 2020) and children's books such as Candy (2018) and the forthcoming A Child's Book of the Future (2024). He is a former columnist for the Washington Post and a current honorary Visiting Professor and Writer in Residence at the American International University in London.
Summary
1946. Ruth begins building a new life in Palestine, haunted by the death of her family in Europe and driven by youthful ideals in a land hostile to her presence. A historical epic following four generations of a family as they struggle to hold on to their land and each other.
Foreword
The second book in a hugely ambitious, asynchronous trilogy charting the genesis and evolution of the State of Israel.
Additional text
PRAISE FOR MAROR:
'A sprawling epic set across four decades, and an audacious account of the underbelly of nation-building... Spectacular... Fascinating... Astonishing... Maror is a masterpiece of the sacred and the profane... Tidhar has achieved a literary triumph' Jake Arnott, Guardian.
'Some write in ink, others in song, Tidhar writes in fire... Maror is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece, immense in its sympathies, alarming in its irreverences and altogether exhilarating' Junot Díaz.
'Maror blends the page-turning wit of a hard-boiled detective noir with the stirring intrigue of a multi-national political epic. An ambitious achievement that weaves a tapestry of both story and statement' Kevin Jared Hosein.
'Radiant with [...] the richly nuanced complexity and style of Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings... Will catch your breath as it presents the history of Israel from unique points of view, with dazzling multi-generational scope'
