Renowned author and Israel Prize winner Amos Oz died Friday following a short battle with cancer. He was 79.
His daughter, Fania Oz-Salzberger announced his death on twitter, stating: “My beloved father, Amos Oz, a wonderful family man, an author, a man of peace and moderation, died today peacefully after a short battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his lovers and knew it to the end. May his good legacy continue to amend the world.”
Born Amos Klausman in Jerusalem in 1939, Oz won dozens of awards for his work that included more than 40 novels, short stories, essays and articles. His 2002 memoir “A Tale of Love and Darkness” was made into a movie in 2015 directed by and starring Natalie Portman.
Oz’s books have been translated into 45 languages. A finalist for the Man Booker Prize in 2017, he was also a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
A co-founder and a spokesperson for the Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) organization, Oz was a vocal proponent of a two-state solution. In November his book “Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land” – three essays adapted from his lectures about the state of politics in Israel today, was released in the United States.
Oz was quoted as saying that he wore his polarizing left wing views as “a badge of honor.”
Following his death, tributes poured in. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “One of the greatest authors Israel had to offer. Oz made endless contributions to the renewal of Hebrew literature, with which he deftly and emotionally expressed essential aspects of Israeli life.”
President Reuven Rivlin said, “Sorrow descends upon us as the Sabbath begins. A literary titan. Splendor of our authors. A giant of the humanities. Rest in peace, our beloved Amos.”
Oz’s wish to be remembered is probably best summed up in one of his own quotes:
“When I was little, my ambition was to grow up to be a book. Not a writer. People can be killed like ants. Writers are not hard to kill either. But not books: however systematically you try to destroy them, there is always a chance that a copy will survive and continue to enjoy a shelf-life in some corner in an out-of-the-way library somewhere in Reykjavik, Valladolid or Vancouver.”
Read David Suissa’s thoughts on Oz’s passing.
