World Cup Wishes

'Clever, moving and humane' Linda Grant 
 
An intimate, warm-hearted novel about friendship, growing up and change

It's hard not to be completely swept away by World Cup Wishes... very readable and eloquent, but above all it is moving

[Nevo] has an astute sense of drama and an ability to shape well-rounded characters...He has all the skills needed to fill a significant role in Israeli literature

It brings tender emotional savvy to bear on the question of whether friendships - particularly those tight, testy bonds between groups of men - help people to grow as individuals or, in fact, hold us back

What started as a realistic novel about everyday life in Israel evolves into a story about storytelling. In doing so, it confirms Nevo as one of the best young Israeli writers today

Eshkol Nevo was born in Jerusalem in 1971. He studied psychology at Tel Aviv University and then worked as a copywriter for eight years. Today he teaches creative writing at a number of academic institutions. Nevo has published a collection of stories, a work of non-fiction and his first novel, Homesick, was awarded the Israeli Book Publishers Association's Golden Book Prize (2005) and the FFI-Raymond Wallier Prize at the Salon du Livre (Paris, 2008). Eshkol is an Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation chosen artist - one of Israel's highest recognitions for excellence in the arts.

Four friends get together to watch the 1998 World Cup final. One of them has an idea: let's write down our wishes for the next few years, put them away, and during the next final - four years from now - we'll get them out and see how many we've achieved. This is how World Cup Wishes opens, and from here we watch what happens to their wishes and their friendships as life marches on. 
 
The four men's bond is deep and solid, but tested by betrayal, death,and distance their alliance comes under pressure. Each friend offers a different perspective, though not necessarily a reliable one... and as they and the world around them change, so do their ideas of friendship and happiness. By the end they are forced to ask whether wishes can really be fulfilled. Or will their story turn out to be a requiem - for a generation, for friendship, or even for one of the four young men? 
 
Once again, Eshkol Nevo has produced a novel suffused with charm, warmth and an astonishing wisdom.

Homesick

Eshkol Nevo's heart-warming, charming and clever first novel dips into the lives of each of the inhabitants of a village that sits midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - a beautiful story about finding your home.

A compelling novel which I never wanted to end

A moving, memorably human tale of love, history and belonging

The novel's heartfelt bass note is the beauty and difficulty of human relationships, evoked with sympathy and an ear for the nuances of different voices which is as playful as it is precise

A brave and and moving novel... prepare to be engrossed

Eshkol Nevo, grandson of Levi Eshkol, was hailed as a promising new writer with the publication of his short-story collection, B&amp;B in Givatayim. Three years on, the critics are patting themselves on the back and saying, "I told you so." Thirty-three year-old Nevo's first full-length novel is a deeply human book, suffused with desire and melacholy.

The alternating perspectives in this novel provide a key to understanding the discrepancies in Israel, between European and Oriental culture, religious and secular perspectives, Jews and Arabs. At the same time, Nevo tells us with great sensitivity about feelings and relationships between man and woman, parents and children, between entire peoples.

Playful and painful account, delicately translated...puts the personal before the political every time.

Eshkol Nevo was born in Jerusalem in 1971. He studied psychology at Tel Aviv University and then worked as a copywriter for eight years. Today he teaches creative writing at a number of academic institutions. Nevo has published a collection of stories, a work of non-fiction and two novels. His first novel, Homesick, was awarded the Israeli Book Publishers Association's Golden Book Prize (2005) and the FFI-Raymond Wallier Prize at the Salon du Livre (Paris, 2008); his most recent novel is World Cup Wishes (2012). Eshkol is an Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation chosen artist - one of Israel's highest recognitions for excellence in the arts.

It is 1995 and Noa and Amir have decided to move in together. Noa is studying photography in Jerusalem and Amir is a psychology student in Tel Aviv, so they choose a tiny flat in a village in the hills, between the two cities. Their flat is separated from that of their landlords, Sima and Moshe Zakian, by a thin wall, but on each side we find a different home - and a different world. 
 
Homesick is a beautiful, clever and moving story about history, love, family and the true meaning of home.

Eshkol Nevo

Sondra Silverston

Eshkol Nevo writes beautifully, funnily and wisely about men and women... Friendship, envy, love, misery, endurance - he captures the lot

Tender and insightful.  Eshkol Nevo is a delightful writer

A fascinating novel, a combination of Utopia and dystopia - but above all, it is a moving story about one family, about love and loss and loneliness

Studded with wrenching emotions and original ideas... Neuland does what a novel can: it helps to clear the roadblocks in the mind

An immensely powerful exploration of love, grief, 'what ifs?' and the forces that bind and break families and nations

By far his most ambitious to date... Nevo manages to tell two compelling love stories, introduce a wide-ranging cast of characters, and bring to life their longing for renewal

Nevo has an effortless knack for storytelling and, through his poetic prose, perfectly captures the moral, physical and philosophical dilemmas each character faces

Neuland is a haunting story seething with metatexts… A sophisticated novel that function on multiple parameters

The kind of compulsive reading that happens only with good books

A poetic creation that celebrates everything that might have been if things had gone differently

With this book, Eshkol Nevo attains maturity and becomes one of the best writers we have

Dori’s father has gone travelling in South America and, suffering from some kind of breakdown, following the death of his wife, he goes missing. Dori sets out to find him, leaving his wife and young son at home in Israel. 
 
Inbar is escaping from her life – from the grief that she can’t shake after her brother’s death, from the boyfriend she doesn’t love – and impulsively sets out for South America. While she’s there she meets a man who is searching for his father… 
 
 
In his most ambitious novel to date, Eshkol Nevo weaves a beautiful love story with two tales: the story of the wandering Jews who came to their Promised Land in the wake of the Second World War, embodied by Inbar’s grandmother Lily’s narrative of her sea journey over from Poland, and the story of a new generation of wandering Israelis who leave again to go backpacking, perhaps hoping that the distance will allow them to see their homeland more clearly. Neuland is a romantic adventure, a search for a father that leads to love, and a quest for an understanding of identity and for second chances. Is it ever possible to start again? Nevo has produced a daring, epic novel that asks profound questions, but the truth and warmth of his writing make it all-consuming and irresistibly loveable.

Eshkol Nevo

Praise for Neuland

Eshkol Nevo writes beautifully, funnily and wisely about men and women... Friendship, envy, love, misery, endurance - he captures the lot

Tender and insightful. Eshkol Nevo is a delightful writer

A fascinating novel, a combination of Utopia and dystopia - but above all, it is a moving story about one family, about love and loss and loneliness

Eshkol Nevo writes beautifully, funnily and wisely about men and women... Friendship, envy, love, misery, endurance - he captures the lot

Tender and insightful. Eshkol Nevo is a delightful writer

A fascinating novel, a combination of Utopia and dystopia - but above all, it is a moving story about one family, about love and loss and loneliness

Eshkol Nevo writes beautifully, funnily and wisely about men and women... Friendship, envy, love, misery, endurance - he captures the lot

Tender and insightful. Eshkol Nevo is a delightful writer

A fascinating novel, a combination of Utopia and dystopia - but above all, it is a moving story about one family, about love and loss and loneliness

Books by Eshkol Nevo

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