Mordecai Richler has done it again.
Author of 15 books, including nine novels, several children's books, numerous essays and screenplays, Richler has been delighting and enraging his international audience for over 30 years.
Now, with the publication of This Year in Jerusalem, a remarkable amalgamation of history, political commentary and autobiography, Richler seals his fate as Canada's preeminent man of letters.
His last bestseller, Oh Canada, Oh Quebec!, provoked a storm of controversy, with extensive media coverage throughout North America. When a chapter was excerpted in the New Yorker magazine, that issue sold out in newsstands from coast to coast in two days, confirmation of the internationalism of Richler's scope.
His new book promises to be at least as provocative, and possibly even more controversial. An exceptionally thoughtful examination of the Middle East conflict and the concept of Israel as Homeland (for Jews and for Palestinians), This Year in Jerusalem is also a personal memoir -- often hilariously funny -- about growing up Jewish in Montreal, his experience with Zionism as an adolescent, what it means to be both a Canadian and a Jew.
As always, Richler is fiercely outspoken and savagely funny. With keen, razor-sharp wit, he mercilessly ridicules every form of hypocrisy or affectation, with no regard for religion, class, or politics.
Over the years, Richler has captured a worldwide audience. Several of his novels have been made into successful film (his screen adaptation of his novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz earned him both an Academy Award nomination and Best Screenplay Award at the Berlin Film Festival).
The most Canadian of Canadian writers, Richler is also the most international in outlook. He has successfully imparted the essence of Canada to the rest of the world.
He is a hugely entertaining speaker - witty, charming, knowledgeable and provocative. His talks exhibit the same spirited, insightful, and unflinching self-appraisal that have earned him his well-deserved reputation as one of Canada's most important voices.
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