David Grossman

David Grossman (; born January 25, 1954) is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.

Biography David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the elder of two brothers. His mother, Michaella, was born in Mandatory Palestine; his father, Yitzhak, emigrated from Dynów in Poland with his widowed mother at the age of nine. His mother's family was Labor Zionist and poor. His grandfather paved roads in the Galilee and supplemented his income by buying and selling rugs. His maternal grandmother, a manicurist, left Poland after police harassment. Accompanied by her son and daughter, she immigrated to Palestine and worked as a maid in wealthy neighborhoods.

Grossman's father was a bus driver, then a librarian. Among the literature he brought home for his son to read were the stories of Sholem Aleichem.

In 1971, Grossman served in the IDF military intelligence corps. He was in the army when the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, but saw no action. Uri's life was later celebrated in Grossman's book Falling Out of Time.

Radio career After university, Grossman became an anchor on Kol Yisrael, Israel's national broadcasting service. In 1988 he was sacked for refusing to bury the news that the Palestinian leadership had declared its own state and conceded Israel's right to exist. His 2014 book, Falling Out of Time, deals with the grief of parents in the aftermath of their children's death. In 2017, he was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in conjunction with his frequent collaborator and translator, Jessica Cohen, for his novel A Horse Walks into a Bar.

Political activism

Grossman is an outspoken left-wing peace activist.

Initially supportive of Israel's action during the 2006 Lebanon War on the grounds of self-defense, on August 10, 2006, he and fellow authors Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua held a press conference at which they strongly urged the government to agree to a ceasefire that would create the basis for a negotiated solution, saying: "We had a right to go to war. But things got complicated. ... I believe that there is more than one course of action available." Grossman explained that the death of his son did not change his opposition to Israel's policy towards the Palestinians. Grossman also said he remains convinced that "the curse of Israel began with the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967". A few days later, Member of Knesset Ofer Cassif was forcibly removed from the podium of the Israeli parliament for quoting Grossman's statements.

Awards and recognition In 2015, Grossman withdrew his candidacy for the Israel Prize for Literature after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to remove two of the judging panel who he claimed were "anti-Zionist". 1984: Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works 1985: Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category) 1991: Nelly Sachs Prize 1993: Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category) 2001: Sapir Prize for Someone to Run With 2004: JQ Wingate Prize (fiction) for Someone to Run With 2004: Italian prize Premio Flaiano; 2004: Bialik Prize for literature (with Haya Shenhav and Ephraim Sidon) 2007: Emet Prize 2007: Ischia International Journalism Award 2007: honorary Doctor Honoris Causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 2008: Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2010: Albatros Literaturpreis for To the End of the Land, with German translator Anne Birch Hauer 2010: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2010: National Jewish Book Award for To the End of the Land 2011: JQ Wingate Prize for To the End of the Land 2015: St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates 2017: Man Booker International Prize for A Horse Walks into a Bar (with translator Jessica Cohen) 2018: Israel Prize 2022: Winner of the Erasmus Prize. 2024: Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Understanding and Reconciliation 2024: Heinrich Heine prize for promoting human rights 2026: Thomas Mann Prize

Works translated into English

Fiction Duel [דו קרב / Du-krav, 1982]. London: Bloomsbury, 1998, The Smile of the Lamb [חיוך הגדי / Hiyukh ha-gedi: roman, 1983]. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990, See Under: Love [עיין ערך: אהבה / Ayen erekh—-ahavah: roman, 1986]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1989, The Book of Intimate Grammar [ספר הדקדוק הפנימי / Sefer ha-dikduk ha-penimi: roman, 1991]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994, The Zigzag Kid [יש ילדים זיג זג / Yesh yeladim zigzag, 1994]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997, – won two prizes in Italy: the Premio Mondello in 1996, and the Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1997. Be My Knife [שתהיי לי הסכין / She-tihyi li ha-sakin, 1998]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001, Someone to Run With [מישהו לרוץ איתו / Mishehu laruts ito, 2000]. London: Bloomsbury, 2003, Her Body Knows: two novellas [בגוף אני מבינה / Ba-guf ani mevinah: tsemed novelot, 2003]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005, To the End of the Land [אישה בורחת מבשורה / Isha Borahat MiBesora, 2008]. Jessica Cohen, trans. Knopf, 2010, Falling Out of Time. Jessica Cohen, trans. Knopf, 2014, A Horse Walks Into a Bar: A Novel. [סוס אחד נכנס לְבָּר / Soos Echad Nechnas L'bar]. Jessica Cohen, trans. Knopf, 2017, More Than I Love My Life, 2019, אתי החיים משחק הרבה

Nonfiction The Yellow Wind [הזמן הצהוב / Ha-Zeman ha-tsahov, 1987]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1988, Sleeping on a Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel [נוכחים נפקדים / Nokhehim Nifkadim, 1992]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993, Death as a Way of Life: Israel Ten Years after Oslo [מוות כדרך חיים / Mavet ke-derech khayyim, 2003]. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, Lion’s honey: the myth of Samson [דבש אריות / Dvash arayiot, 2005]. Edinburgh; New York: Canongate, 2006, Writing in the Dark: Essays on Literature and Politics New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008, The Thinking Heart: Essays on Israel and Palestine Jonathan Cape (Penguin Random House), 2024,

Films The Smile of the Lamb, award-winning film written and directed by Shimon Dotan, based on the Grossman novel by the same name. Someone to Run With, directed by Oded Davidoff, based on the Grossman novel by the same name. The Book of Intimate Grammar was the basis for an award-winning film by Nir Bergman. The Zigzag Kid, directed by Vincent Bal, based on the Grossman novel by the same name.