Center for the Book Press Release

PR97-151, 9-18-97

ISRAELI NOVELIST AND WRITER DAVID GROSSMAN TO SPEAK AT LIBRARY ON OCTOBER 29

David Grossman, one of Israel's most important contemporary writers, will present an informal talk and read from his works at the Library of Congress at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 1997. The program, part of the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" series, is cosponsored by the Library's Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, and the Cultural Affairs Department, Embassy of Israel. It will be held in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building and is free and open to the public.

Grossman's new novel, The Zigzag Kid, has just been published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. His earlier novels are The Smile of the Lambs (1990), See Under: Love (1989), and The Book of Intimate Grammar (1994). The Yellow Wind, a work of non-fiction based on Mr. Grossman's three month stay on the West Bank in 1987, was one of the most controversial and popular books in his country's history. Sleeping on A Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel, another work of non-fiction, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1993.

David Grossman has received many international awards for his writing. He was born in 1954, and received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Theater from Hebrew University in 1979.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries. For further information, visit the center on the World Wide Web at: http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/.