Leshem, Ron 1976-

PERSONAL:

Born 1976.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tel Aviv, Israel.

CAREER:

Keshet Broadcasting, Tel Aviv, Israel, deputy director of programming. Formerly an editor and journalist for Yediot Aharonot and Maariv.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Sapir Prize, Mifal Hapayis (Israel), 2006; Academy Award nomination for best foreign film, 2008.

WRITINGS:

Im yesh gan eden (title means "If There Is Heaven"; see below for screenplay), Zemorah-Bitan (Or Yehudah, Israel), 2005, translation by Evan Fallenberg published as Beaufort, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2008.

(With Joseph Cedar) Beaufort (screenplay; based on the novel), Kino International, 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ron Leshem's novel Im yesh gan eden (which appeared in English translation as Beaufort) is the story of a group of Israeli soldiers stationed at the old Crusader fortress of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon. "If you live in Israel it would be hard not to have noticed the book, which has sat on the country's bestseller list for the best part of 18 months and also won the author the country's top literary prize," wrote Justin Rudzki in an interview with Leshem for Israel21c, referring to the Sapir Prize. Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers had captured Beaufort Castle from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1982—it is a strategic location because it overlooks most of southern Lebanon and northern Israel—and they continued to hold it against Hezbollah forces until May 2000.

The novel Beaufort and the movie made from it are set during the final weeks of the IDF occupation. "It's written as the diary of Liraz (Erez) Liberti, the 21-year-old head of the commando team stationed at the fortress. His narrative focuses on the group of 13 young men in his charge and their struggle to cope with the realities of war," stated Rudzki. "The characters are also isolated from the rest of society—stuck in some kind of cage, a remote adolescent kingdom cut off from a mature adult presence." As a result the young men become desensitized to the violence that pervades their lives. "An Israeli soldier named Yonatan, killed in action off the page, is the subject of a game called What He Can't Do Anymore," noted Lee Thomas in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The young men stationed at Beaufort, just across the Israel-Lebanon border, keep a check on their sanity by making light of death—the dead can no longer break up with a girl, get yelled at by their mothers, drive to the beach. The scenarios unfold, funny, chilling and unrelenting. From that moment forward, Leshem never slackens his pace." "As Israel prepares to abandon Beaufort, the forces of Hezbollah do everything they can to ensure that Beaufort's closure will be remembered as a bloody retreat," concluded Colleen Quinn in a review posted on Bookreporter.com. "This is a classic war story, with all the traditional elements of heroism, danger and black humor, but the reader never loses sight of the futility of the war itself."

Critics celebrated Leshem's accomplishment in Beaufort, mentioning especially his ability to evoke the lives of soldiers in Israel's wars without having seen active service himself. The novel is "very light and readable," declared Eli Bendersky in a review published on his Web site, and the "style [makes] this book … highly believable—the usage of slang is terrific, and the manner of talk between the soldiers feels very real." "It was clear to me from the very first moment," Leshem told an interviewer for Bookreporter.com, "that there was no way of writing Beaufort from the vantage point of an all-knowing storyteller. Such a point of view would have tainted the story with arrogance. I also did not want to hear my own voice there, in any way. It would have felt too compassionate, or too critical; it would have tainted things." "This bold, imaginative, raw and powerful story was a sensation in Israel," stated B. Glen Rotchin in the blog On Bounced Rent Cheques and Teary-Eyed Excuses. "This portrait of these courageous young men is, like the book itself, at once heartbreaking and exhilarating." Thomas Gaughan declared in Booklist, that, "by turns, it is tragic, funny, mordant, irate, shocking, and poignant." "Reading the novel now … one is reminded how easily an army can find itself trapped in enemy territory," concluded Jascha Hoffman in the New York Times Book Review, "sunk, as one general puts it to Liraz, ‘deep in tactics, without strategies.’"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2007, Thomas Gaughan, review of Beaufort, p. 30.

Library Journal, November 15, 2007, Andrea Kempf, review of Beaufort, p. 50.

New York Times Book Review, March 9, 2008, Jascha Hoffman, "Besieged," review of Beaufort.

San Francisco Chronicle, January 16, 2008, Lee Thomas, "Beaufort Makes Israeli Soldiers' Lot Horribly Real."

Variety, February 19, 2007, review of Beaufort, p. 45.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com,http://bookreporter.com/ (August 14, 2008), Colleen Quinn, review of Beaufort, and interview with author.

Eli Bendersky's Web site,http://eli.thegreenplace.net/ (August 14, 2008), Eli Bendersky, "Book Review: ‘If There's Heaven’ by Ron Leshem," review of Beaufort.

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imbd.com/ (August 15, 2008), author profile.

Israel21c,http://www.israel21c.org/ (August 14, 2008), Justin Rudzki, "Looking for Paradise with Author Ron Leshem," interview with author.

On Bounced Rent Cheques and Teary-Eyed Excuses,http://therentcollector.blogspot.com/ (August 14, 2008), B. Glen Rotchin, review of Beaufort.

Random House Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (August 14, 2008), author profile.

Zeek,http://www.zeek.net/ (August 14, 2008), author profile.