The Ascent of Eli Israel — Jonathan Papernick

In these disturbing, haunting, yet strangely beautiful stories, the terrible carnage of the Middle East is rendered in unforgettable form. In An Unwelcome Guest, a young Jewish settler from New York plays a deadly game of backgammon with a ghostly old Arab while his pregnant wife sleeps unaware. In The King of the King of Falafel, a restaurant rivalry ends in apocalyptic violence. And in the brilliant, horrifying title story, a lonely shepherd wanders a broken no-man's land, carrying with him the burden of an unspeakable act. A collection of startling authority and vivid imagination, it heralds the arrival of a masterful new storyteller.Author Biography: Jon Papernick worked as a reporter in Israel for several years and was in the country at the time of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He teaches elementary school in Brooklyn and is at work on a novel.