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Dorothea Shefer Vanson | Writer, Editor, Translator |
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For
most of my working life I have been a translator and editor. In addition, I
have always written, and have now decided that it’s time my novels saw the
light of day. So please take a look at them on this page and on my Amazon
page: My blog, which I update weekly, contains book reviews and articles about life in general, and in Israel in particular, and can be found at: http://fromdorothea.wordpress.com. It also appears in journals and websites in England (http://www.ajr.org.uk) , Israel (http://www.jpost.com/Blogs) and the US (http://www.sdjewishworld.com). If you decide to buy or download any of my books, I'll be very grateful. I'll be even more grateful if you can bring yourself to write a review on Amazon. Contact
me at: dorotheashefer@gmail.com |
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In 1966 the divided city of
Jerusalem is a sleepy backwater, but the students at the university are
determined to enjoy life. Three graduate students, Brian from Australia,
Batsheva from the U.S.A., and Cynthia from England, are involved in life on
campus and the city’s throbbing night-time scene. Batsheva and her husband
are trying to get their discotheque up and running, Cynthia is plagued by a
succession of inept boyfriends while trying to fend off the unwelcome
attentions of one of the professors, and Brian is struggling to maintain his
role as husband and father. The political situation as well as the relations
between the three individuals, as well as between them and society in general,
form the subject of this novel. |
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The year is 1983, war is raging
to the north of Israel as the lives of three women, and the husband of one of
them, intersect in a Jerusalem neighborhood. While the life of each character
is different, the interaction between them and their respective memories
forms the core of the book. The physical reality and atmosphere of Jerusalem
also have a unique role to play. The clandestine affair between the husband
of one of the characters and her friend overshadows the relations between all
of them, causing anguish and conflict. One of the friends is bringing up her
daughter on her own while still suffering from abuse by her ex-husband, while
another is unable to overcome her grief at the loss of her mother. A marriage gets into difficulties as the
wife struggles to come to terms with her life and the challenge of coping
with her two young sons. Buy
Friends, Neighbors, Traitors |
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An eccentric woman imposes
herself on a family living in Jerusalem at a time of disturbances in the Old
City. their orderly way of life is disrupted, bringing Tamar, devoted wife
and mother, to the verge of a breakdown. Her husband, Reuben, does his best
to keep things on an even keel but is distracted by his obsession with his
young secretary. Matters come to a head when Tamar’s boss absconds with her
colleague and the firm’s funds, and she finds Reuben in a compromising
situation. |
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It is 1985 and Israeli
paleontologist Avi Samuels is spending a year in the
sleepy university town of Seabrook, Nebraska. He encounters hostility from
the head of his department as well as anti-Semitism in the local paper. His
expedition to obtain rock specimens is beset by mishaps and bad weather, his
wife has an affair with the art teacher at the local community college, and
their children get into trouble at school. Finally, Avi
reveals a plot by the neo-Nazi party to wreak havoc throughout America. Buy
All Quiet On The Midwestern Plains On Amazon |
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In search of the good life,
Sophie and John decide to spend their retirement in France. They eventually
find the house of their dreams, but achieving their goal is impeded by a
hostile neighbor and their own ignorance of the French language and culture.
Various characters, both expats and locals, aid and abet them in their
efforts. Julie Smithers, a young woman who has come to France to escape an
unhappy romance and is trying to write a book, embarks on an affair with the
handyman who comes to repair a leaking faucet in her house. The denouement
comes when the hostile neighbor enters John and Sophie's house. Buy Chasing Dreams And Flies at Amazon.com |
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Levi Koenig, A Contemporary King
Lear explores the relations between three
sisters, their attitude to their ailing father, and the way in which each one
strives to juggle home, family, work, and love-life while tending to her
father’s needs. Their relations come under additional strain when it
transpires that their father has been sending money to an unknown woman |
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Inspired by family documents and
correspondence brought out of Germany by the author’s father, Time
Out Of Joint - The Fate Of A Family describes
the events unfolding in Europe between 1924 and 1942 and their effect on the
members of the van Dornbach family. |
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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson's first book, The Balancing Game describes the strange and unique world
occupied by a Jewish child, the daughter of refugees from Hitler’s Germany,
growing up in post-war London and living in a run-down neighborhood. Interwoven
are chapters describing the experiences of a young woman living in Jerusalem
and expecting her first child in the weeks before and during the Six-Day War
of 1967. |
