This is a dark book, with a dark vision of contemporary Israel… The whole, rich, disturbing mixture makes one feel as if something dark is digging away at the foundations, something unnameable ready to emerge. It is one of the most powerful books you will read about present-day Israel.

These stories have both force and mystery, and they cast a quiet spell

A powerfully bleak portrait of loneliness, confusion and cracked bonds

These stories, in their humanity, may do more for Israel than any of the decisions we have been led to expect of its leaders in the months to come

I enjoyed Amos Oz's Scenes From Village Life a great deal... it explores what is universal, what is entirely idiosyncratic, about daily life in Israel away from the obvious conflicts

Oz's characters might be drawn from Chekhov: their lives seem an irresoluble muddle of sorrow, baffled hopes and missed chances; his compassion for them makes the reader care deeply about them, too. This is a wise, beautiful and enduring book

Potent and uncanny

The stories resemble an echo chamber of recurring themes, steeped in a strangeness and danger that lingers on like a dream'

Admirably rendered in English by Oz's longtime translator, Nicholas de Lange, these linked stories prove achingly melancholy... It is like a symphony... There is, in each story, a particular chord or strain; but taken together, these chords rise and reverberate, evoking an unease so strong it's almost a taste in the mouth... Scenes From Village Life is a brief collection, but its brevity is a testament to its force. You will not soon forget it

Impressive and very affecting

Oz beautifully captures the interplay of tensions in each character.

One of the greatest short story writers alive