by Valerie Arnon

UK born Valerie Arnon (nee Rosovsky) came to Israel in 1955 and joined kibbutz Bet Haemek. In 1959 she and her family settled in Nof Yam, Herzliya. A literary editor and translator with special achievements in the translation of plays, notably by Nissim Aloni, and biographies, including Ruth Blondy's Whole Fragments (Gvanim, Tel Aviv) she has also written documentaries: Neighbors - A Document, and The Girl from Varaklyan (Carmela Lachish, Jerusalem). 2002 saw publication of her book of stories That First Kiss (Gvanim).

"I embarked on the pursuit of harvesting my neighbors' memories without knowing what, if anything, would come out of it. And here it is: an account of the long, straggly, painful trek of escapees, survivors, refugees, who wandered from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Hungary, France, Latvia, Libya, to make their home in our small neighborhood by the sea. The stories collected do not twine into a dramatic theme, and yet there is a thread: myself, living as I do in close walking distance of such legends."

Valerie Arnon

Can be ordered from: Valerie Arnon: val29@netvision.net.il