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July 11, 2019

How Batya Gur Created Classic Detective Fiction in an Israeli Key

Tightknit communities as stand-ins for a society at large.

In her short literary career, begun at age thirty-nine and ending with her death at fifty-seven in 2005, Batya Gur wrote six bestselling crime novels that established her as Israel’s leading practitioner of the genre. A former high-school teacher, Gur claimed to have modeled her books’ hero, an academic-turned-detective named Michael Ohayon, on herself. Praising her works, which have been translated into several languages, Sean Cooper examines what makes them especially Israeli:

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July 11, 2019

  1. In Rejecting the Bahrain Conference, Palestinian Leaders Keep Faith with Their Long-Range Intentions

    Neither peace nor prosperity is Mahmoud Abbas’s goal.

  2. Iran Never Converted a Key Nuclear-Weapons Site into a Civilian Facility. (But It Did Equip It with Sophisticated Missiles)

    Fordow can return to high enrichment at a moment’s notice.

  3. The Many Deceits of Edward Said

    And their anti-Israel consequences.

  4. Can Jewish Thought Flourish as Judaism Becomes Increasingly Out of Step with American Culture?

    Seven decades of Tradition.

  5. How Batya Gur Created Classic Detective Fiction in an Israeli Key

    Tightknit communities as stand-ins for a society at large.