Amalia Kahana-Carmon

1926–2019

Fiction writer and essayist Amalia Kahana-Carmon was born at Kibbutz ‘Ein Ḥarod and raised in Tel Aviv. In the 1940s, she was a member of the underground military Haganah and later joined the fighting branch, the Palmach, taking part in the 1948 war as a radio operator. Her first book, Bi-khfifah aḥat (Under One Roof), was published in 1966 to great acclaim. Her lyrical, allusive style and her subtle rendering of female consciousness made her a dominant figure in Israeli women’s writing. She received the Israel Prize for Literature in 2000.

Content by Amalia Kahana-Carmon

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The Glass Bell

Amalia Kahana-Carmon
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Opposite the windowsill is a shuttered curtain and a wasteland of chimneys. The street is being drained of life. A double-decker bus with gleaming windows of light passes by the corner. A woman pushes…

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Bridal Veil

Amalia Kahana-Carmon
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Along the nocturnal road were trees, nodding heads like people. The light of the speeding bus falls on them, withdraws from them. And the vapour-veiled moon crescent is getting blurred. But why is her…