Jerusalem: City of Mirrors - Softcover

Elon, Amos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571275419 ISBN 13: 9780571275410

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2011

Synopsis

'A brilliantly illuminating book.' Philip Roth Jerusalem: City of Mirrors is an absorbing contemplation of the fabled city which for the Western mind remains as much a myth as a physical reality. First published in 1990, Amos Elon's elegant, dazzling biography of Jerusalem gives a profound insight into the kaleidoscopic culture of this eternally magical city. Battle-scarred from four thousand years of violent conflict, the holy city is a sacred symbol of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and its religious wars of today reflect those of the past - Arab versus Jew, orthodox versus secular, continuity versus change. 'Elon's Jerusalem is both a learned book and a charming one ... He places us before a veritable many-layered mountain of myth and history, a compressed symbol of our most sublime aspirations along with our most disgusting, hatefully brainless excursions into religious bigotry and fratricide. It is a book as complex and surprising as the city itself.' Arthur Miller 'A superbly readable study.'Jewish Chronicle 'A book which should be read by all.' Catholic Herald

About this title

About the Author:

Amos Elon (1926-2009) was an essayist, journalist and historian. He was born in Vienna, immigrating to Palestine when a child in 1933. He was for long considered one of Israel's leading journalists. Never a mere votary of Zionism, he finally moved to Tuscany when his disillusionment became closer to despair. Inevitably branded 'a self-hating jew' he once on television snapped at a reactionary accuser, 'I don't hate myself, I just hate Jews like you.'

The author of nine books, Faber Finds is reissuing four of them: Founder; The Israelis; Jerusalem and Herzl

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0571275419
• ISBN 13: 9780571275410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 322