One of Israel's most celebrated novelists, MEIR SHALEV was born in 1948 on Nahalal, Israel's first moshav. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and have been best sellers in Israel, Holland, and Germany. He is also a columnist for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. His honors include the National Jewish Book Award and the Brenner Prize, one of Israel's top literary awards, for A Pigeon and a Boy. He has been named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Shalev lives in Jerusalem and in the north of Israel. STUART SCHOFFMAN worked as a journalist at Time and as a screenwriter in Hollywood before moving to Israel in 1988. He has written about Jewish and Israeli culture and politics for many publications, including The Jerusalem Report and the Jewish Review of Books. His translations from Hebrew include Beginnings by Meir Shalev, Lion's Honey by David Grossman, and three novels by A.B. Yehoshua: Friendly Fire, The Retrospective, and The Extra.