Evan Fallenberg (born August 8)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Evan Fallenberg is the author of two novels – Light Fell (Soho Press, 2008) and When We Danced on Water (HarperCollins, 2011) – and translator of many more, including Ron Leshem's Beaufort, Batya Gur's Murder in Jerusalem, Alon Hilu's Death of a Monk and The House of Rajani, Yair Lapid’s Memories After My Death, and Meir Shalev's My Russian Grandmother’s American Vacuum Cleaner and A Pigeon and a Boy, winner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award for fiction. Other translations include work for television (Adir Miller); the stage (Gilad Evron, Lior Navok); and cinema (Savi Gabizon). (P: Photo by Aliz Noy)

Fallenberg has won or been shortlisted for the following prizes: the American Library Association's Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Award for Literature; the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; the National Jewish Book Award in fiction; the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction; the Samuel Goldberg Foundation Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers; the Harold U. Ribalow Award; the PEN Translation Prize; and the Times Literary Supplement of London Risa Domb/Porjes Prize for Translation of Hebrew Literature.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Fallenberg is a graduate of Georgetown University and the MFA program in creative writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts and has lived in Israel since 1985. He is coordinator of fiction for the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University; coordinator of literary translation in the Department of English Literature at Bar-Ilan University; and an instructor in the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at City University of Hong Kong. The recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, Fallenberg serves as an advisor to several literary prizes, including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. He is the father of two sons.

Source: www.evanfallenberg.com/about.html

Further Readings:

Light Fell by Evan Fallenberg
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Soho Press (January 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569475369
ISBN-13: 978-1569475362
Amazon: Light Fell
Amazon Kindle: Light Fell

Awarded the 2009 Stonewall Prize for Fiction, the first and most enduring award for GLBT books, sponsored by the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table.

Twenty years have passed since Joseph left behind his entire life—his wife Rebecca, his five sons, his father, and the religious Israeli farming community where he grew up—when he fell in love with a man, the genius rabbi Yoel Rosenzweig. Their affair is long over, but its echoes continue to reverberate through the lives of Joseph, Rebecca, and their sons in ways that none of them could have predicted.

Now, for his fiftieth birthday, Joseph is preparing to have his five sons and the daughter-in-law he has never met spend the Sabbath with him in the Tel Aviv penthouse that he shares with a man—who is conveniently out of town that weekend. This will be the first time Joseph and all his sons will be together in nearly two decades.

The boys’ lives have taken widely varying paths. While some have become extremely religious, another is completely cosmopolitan and secular, and their feelings toward their father range from acceptance to bitter resentment. As they prepare for this reunion, Joseph, his sons, and even Rebecca, must confront what was, what is, and what could have been.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels