Edeet Ravel

Edeet Ravel is an Israeli-Canadian novelist born in Israel and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She currently lives in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Background

Edeet Ravel is a Canadian-Israeli writer who was born in 1955 in Sasa, an Israeli kibbutz near the Lebanese border. Her family relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada when she was seven. At age 18 she returned to Israel to attend Hebrew University where she received a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. She returned to Montreal to complete an M.A. and Ph.D in Jewish Studies at McGill University and a Masters in Creative Writing at Concordia University. She subsequently taught at McGill, Concordia and John Abbott College. She was married to Israeli pianist Yaron Ross and currently lives in Guelph, Ontario with her daughter by a second marriage.

Career

Ravel taught Jewish Studies at McGill, Creative Writing at Concordia and English at John Abbott College. She resigned from teaching in 2002 to write full-time.

Her novels "Ten Thousand Lovers", "Look for Me" and "A Wall of Light" form a trilogy about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the effects of war on ordinary lives. The novels broach difficult subjects, including the interrogation of Palestinians and the Separation Fence. All three books call for mutual understanding and an end to the post-67 Occupation. Her books for children aged 10-14, the Pauline btw series, are comedies about a would-be teen author who refers to a How-To guide in order to write her novels. Penguin Canada has announced a forthcoming novel by Ravel entitled "Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth", about the second generation of Holocaust survivors, scheduled for fall, 2008. Groundwood Books has included in their 2008 list a novel by Ravel, "The Saver", for older teens.

Ten Thousand Lovers

In the first book in the Tel Aviv Trilogy, "Ten Thousand Lovers", the narrator revisits a relationship she had with an Israeli interrogator in the Seventies. The novel investigates the evolution of language, the way meaning is manipulated for political and ideological ends, and the tragedies of war.

Look For Me

"Look For Me" takes place during the second Intifada and tells the story of Dana, a photographer living in Tel Aviv, whose husband vanished following an accident during his army service. Dana describes demonstrations in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where she photographs the conflict. Ravel has said in an interview that she has changed the ending of this novel since the book was published.

A Wall of Light

This novel traces a day in the life of a deaf math teacher who travels to East Jerusalem in search of a man she met briefly in the morning. Tel Aviv in the Fifties and Eighties are evoked through two additional narrators. The theme of the role of interpretation in political conflict continues to play a central role in this novel.

Bibliography

* 1995 "Lovers: A Midrash"
* 2003 "Ten Thousand Lovers"
* 2004 "Look for Me"
* 2005 "A Wall of Light"
* 2007 "The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor"
* 2007 "The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary"
* 2007 "The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha"
* 2008 "The Saver"
* 2008 "Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth"

Awards

* Norma Epstein National Fiction Award 1991 (Lovers A Midrash)
* 2003 for Governor General's Award Finalist(Ten Thousand Lovers)
* Koret Jewish Book Award Finalist (Ten Thousand Lovers)
* Quebec Writers Federation Award Finalist (Ten Thousand Lovers)
* 2004 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (Look For Me)
* 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist (A Wall of Light)
* 2005 Canada & The Caribbean Commonwealth Writers' Prize Finalist (A Wall of Light)
* 2006 Canadian Jewish Book Award (A Wall of Light)
* J.I. Segal Award (A Wall of Light)
* Canadian Children's Bookclub Choice (Pauline Series)

External links

* [http://www.edeet.com/ Official website of Edeet Ravel]

References

* [http://www.ctv.ca/generic/WebSpecials/giller_prize/finalists.html 2002 Giller Prize Finallists]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/ Haaretz] , Mar 14, 2003 "Torture in the Bedroom" by Yitzhak Laor
* Quill and Quire, April 2003 "The Thousand Lovers" by Mary Soderstorm
* [http://www.nytimes.com/ New York Times] , Feb. 15, 2004
* [http://globeandmail.com/ Globe and Mail] , Sept. 29, 2005
* [http://www.lemonde.fr/ Le Monde] , Dec 16, 2005 "Amoureuse en Guerre" by Emilie Grangeray
* Globe and Mail, Mar 31, 2007 "A Child's Garden of Reading" by Susan Perren
* Canadian Literature (journal), Autumn 2007 (194), "Beyond the Balagan" by Adrienne Kertzer
* [http://www.thestar.com/ Toronto Star] , Oct. 7, 2007