Fallenberg, Evan 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born August 8, 1961, in Cleveland, OH; moved to Israel in 1985; children: two sons. Education: Georgetown University, B.S.F.S.; Vermont College, M.F.A. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Office—The Studio, POB 372, Bitan Aharon 40294, Israel. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and translator. Bar-Ilan University, Israel, instructor at Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Guest artist, MacDowell Colony, 2002. Worked for Japanese Ministry of Education.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Jewish Book Award in Fiction and PEN Translation Prize finalist, both 2007, both for translation of A Pigeon and a Boy.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

(Translator) Batya Gur, Murder in Jerusalem: A Michael Ohayon Mystery, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 2006.

(Translator) Meir Shalev, A Pigeon and a Boy, Schocken Books (New York, NY), 2007.

(Translator) Alon Hilu, Death of a Monk, Harvill Secker/Random House UK (London, England), 2007.

Light Fell, Soho Press (New York, NY), 2008.

(Translator) Ron Leshem, Beaufort, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Evan Fallenberg is an American-born writer and teacher who has lived in Israel for many years. Though he had no real knowledge of the Hebrew language when he moved there, Fallenberg eventually mastered the language so well that he has been widely praised for his translations into English of several acclaimed Hebrew novels. These include Meir Shalev's A Pigeon and a Boy, Ron Leshem's Beaufort, and Batya Gur's mystery novel Murder in Jerusalem: A Michael Ohayon Mystery. In addition, Fallenberg has published his own novel, titled Light Fell.

Fallenberg grew up in Ohio in the towns of Novelty and University Heights, near Cleveland. After graduating from high school he went on to study at Georgetown University's School of Diplomacy and International Affairs. He lived in Japan for a year after his graduation while working for the Japanese Ministry of Education. "My job was to prove to the locals in a certain rural area of southern Japan that English was a living language," he recalled in an interview with David B. Green for Haaretz.com. "In Hita, a town of 70,000, I was the only non-Japanese. I was a celebrity. It was shocking. People asked for cuttings of my hair, and my autograph. Teenage girls would scream when they saw me. I didn't like it." Fallenberg decided to settle ultimately in Paris, but after his year in Japan, he felt he wanted to get to know his own heritage more deeply. This led him to Israel in 1985. He planned to stay there a year, to study religious writings and the Hebrew language. He never went on to Paris, though, choosing to stay on and make a life for himself in Israel.

Fallenberg's first translation was Murder in Jerusalem, by the Israeli author Batya Gur. It was the final book in a series, featuring the character of Michael Ohayon, an Israeli police superintendent. The story concerns a suspicious death at the Israeli national television network. A set designer is killed by a falling pillar. More deaths soon follow, and it is evident that a murderer is at work. Comparing Gur to novelist P.D. James, Bill Ott observed in Booklist that the author makes use of a "closed-society frame to set up a world where conflict is decades old and—until violence finally erupts—kept far beneath the surface." Ellen Bell, reviewing for School Library Journal, found the book "rich in the culture of modern-day Israel."

Fallenberg proved that his skill in translation reached to other genres as well. Beaufort is a contemporary novel featuring a cast of Israeli soldiers, in charge of a castle called Beaufort, which was captured in 1982. The story of their evacuation, as Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon, is "flamboyant yet gripping," depicting well the addictive nature of war, according to Matthew J. Reisz in Independent. In A Pigeon and a Boy, Fallenberg translated Meir Shalev's story of a young pigeon handler during Israel's War of Independence. Carolyn Kubisz, reviewing for Booklist, called this novel "rich in detail, complex characters, and nuanced language."

In an interview with Ann Hagman Cardinal for Blogcritics.org, Fallenberg commented on the translator's art: "I'm always obsessed with voice. Each piece has its voice, and when I begin a new translation I wonder how I'll find the comparable voice in English once again. It means becoming somewhat of a ventriloquist, really. Mostly I feel I've found it each time, in each new book, but there was one project I stopped very early on because it was clear to me at once that this voice was so far from my own experience and style that I was simply the wrong person to take it on." He further observed: "I cannot and will not ever be able to translate my own work. As good as my Hebrew is, I came to the language too late for it to feel natural when I write in it. And if I can't write in Hebrew, I can't translate."

Fallenberg's Light Fell was described as "a sensitive first novel of family reconciliation," in Kirkus Reviews. The story concerns Joseph Licht, an academic in Israel. Married and with five sons, he is shocked to find himself falling in love with another man, a brilliant young scholar named Yoel Rosenzweig. Licht leaves his family to live with Yoel, but before they are together for long, Yoel takes his own life. As the book begins, twenty years have passed since the tragic love affair, and Licht is now preparing to celebrate his fiftieth birthday with his sons. It is the first time all of them have gathered together in those twenty years, and the story depicts the ways in which the various sons reacted to their father's life choices. Whitney Scott, a reviewer for Booklist, praised the author's depiction of familial bonds, and found that his perspectives "of love of many kinds resonate on many levels." Fallenberg's evocation of various aspects of Israeli life is realistic and "absorbing," stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who further added that Light Fell "adroitly sketches the heartfelt struggles of a sympathetic cast."

Discussing Light Fell with Green, Fallenberg noted: "While Joseph is not me, we share some key issues. I am fascinated—in life and literature—with characters whose lives are on a certain path and who think they're going in a certain direction, when something comes along and turns them upside down. It's no surprise that I wrote about those aspects of my life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Advocate, March 11, 2008, review of Light Fell, p. 58.

Booklist, August 1, 2006, Bill Ott, review of Murder in Jerusalem: A Michael Ohayon Mystery, p. 50; September 15, 2007, Carolyn Kubisz, review of A Pigeon and a Boy, p. 34; November 15, 2007, Thomas Gaughan, review of Beaufort, p. 30; November 15, 2007, Whitney Scott, review of Light Fell, p. 29.

Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, March 1, 2008, review of Light Fell, p. 46.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2006, review of Murder in Jerusalem, p. 549; September 15, 2007, review of Light Fell.

Library Journal, November 1, 2007, Alicia Korenman, review of Light Fell, p. 58.

Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2006, review of Murder in Jerusalem, p. 39; September 3, 2007, review of Light Fell, p. 36.

School Library Journal, January 1, 2007, Ellen Bell, review of Murder in Jerusalem, p. 164.

ONLINE

Blogcritcs.org,http://blogcritics.org/ (February 14, 2008), Ann Hagman Cardinal, interview with Evan Fallenberg.

Cleveland Jewish News, July 18, 2007, Lila Hanft, "Almost Nothing Lost in Translation."

Evan Fallenberg Home Page,http://www.evanfallenberg.com (July 9, 2008).

Genre Go Round Reviews,http://genregoroundreviews.blogspot.com/ (December 13, 2007), Harriet Klausner, review of Light Fell.

Haaretz.com,http://www.haaretz.com/ (May 21, 2008), David B. Green, interview with Evan Fallenberg.

Independent Online,http://www.independent.co.uk/ (February 29, 2008), Matthew J. Reisz, review of Beaufort.

New York Times Book Review Online,http://www.nytimes.com/ (November 25, 2007), Sarah Fay, "Homing In"; (March 9, 2008), Jascha Hoffman, review of Beaufort.