Yaakov Shabtai

Yaakov Shabtai (1934–81) (Hebrew: יעקב שבתאי‎) was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator.

Biography

Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967.^[1]

His best known work is Zikhron Devarim (1977), published in English in 1985 as Past Continuous. Written as a single paragraph, it was the first novel to be written in vernacular Hebrew. In its English translation the novel received international acclaim as a unique work of modernism, prompting critic Gabriel Josipovici of The Independent to name it the greatest novel of the decade, comparing it to Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

In Israel, Shabtai is known as a playwright, having written the plays Crowned Head and The Spotted Tiger. He translated many plays into Hebrew, including works by Harold Pinter, Neil Simon, Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill. Other works by Shabtai include Uncle Peretz Takes Off, a collection of short stories, and Past Perfect (Sof Davar), a continuation of Past Continuous in terms of narrative and style, published posthumously. In 2006 a collection of early stories was published under the title A Circus in Tel Aviv.

Shabtai died of a heart attack in 1981.

Shabtai's brother Aharon is a poet and a translator from Ancient Greek.

Awards and honours

• In 1978, Shabtai was awarded the Bernstein Prize (original Hebrew novel category), which was the inaugural year of the prize.^[1]
• In 1978, he was awarded the Kinor David Prize for Plays.^[1]
• In 1982, he was posthumously awarded the Agnon Prize for literature.^[1]
• In 1999, the Tel Aviv Municipality named a street after him.

Published works

References

External links

• Yaakov Shabtai at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature