Judas

By: Amos Oz

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Winner of the International Literature Prize, the new novel by Amos Oz is his first full-length work since the best-selling A Tale of Love and Darkness.

Jerusalem, 1959. Shmuel Ash, a biblical scholar, is adrift in his young life when he finds work as a caregiver for a brilliant but cantankerous old man named Gershom Wald. There is, however, a third, mysterious presence in his new home. Atalia Abravanel, the daughter of a deceased Zionist leader, a beautiful woman in her 40s, entrances young Shmuel even as she keeps him at a distance. Piece by piece, the old Jerusalem stone house, haunted by tragic history and now home to the three misfits and their intricate relationship, reveals its secrets. At once an exquisite love story and coming-of-age novel, an allegory for the state of Israel and for the biblical tale from which it draws its title, Judas is Amos Oz's most powerful novel in decades.

©2016 Amos Oz (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Outstanding novel

Brilliant writing that spans the ages. I never lost interest and was sorry the novel ended when and where it did.

Excellent performance

One of the best audio performances I’ve listened to yet. You need patience to get going with this novel.

Courageous and delicate novel

The characters in Amos Oz’ last novel are outsiders and in varying degrees traitors to the robust society emerging around them. The indecisive academic Shmuel is our protagonist, whose study is how Jews view Jesus and in his musings creates his own Gospel of an uncertain Jesus and Judas as the first Christian. Other characters are marginal to the times of cast long shadows: Shaltiel Abarbanel the traitor and the brutally slain Micah the soldier. Who at the margins is a patriot and who a traitor and if neither category is truly valid, then what are they?

A Very Different View of Israel

At a time when war between Israel and the Arab states could lead to WWIII, this book reminds us of the alternative. Mellifluous, poetic, extremely thought-provoking. Reading and writing is my life, and five stars doesn’t tell you that this is my favorite novel of the last several years.

Fascinating exploration of Israel and Judas.

Loved the exploration of theories about Judas and debates related to founding of Israel. Difficult to tell who was speaking when it was a back and forth between two major male characters.