Moriel Rothman-Zecher is an American-Israeli writer, poet, and novelist. He is a recipient of a 2017 MacDowell Colony Fellowship for Literature. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Haaretz, and elsewhere. Moriel is the associate editor of the anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash.
Retro (2026) Jessica M Goldstein "Retro is delightful and disturbing; meticulously researched and intricately imagined; propelled by an engine of crackling cleverness and razor-sharp prose but constantly retaining a North Star of genuine heart. This novel is a cri de coeur, a wild adventure, a brilliant book."
Olive Days (2024) Jessica Elisheva Emerson "Thrumming with color and scent, alive with idea and ache, Olive Days is keenly observed, beautifully written, propulsive, poignant, and profound."
The Sea Elephants (2023) Shastri Akella "The Sea Elephants is intricate, surprising, tender, painful and lyrical. In this novel, written with nuance and grace, various forces are both juxtaposed and interwoven: cruelty and solidarity, love and trauma, bereavement and hope, loneliness and togetherness, torment and refuge, fear and bravery. This is a gorgeous, powerful, deeply moving novel that will stay with me - and, I think, many other readers - for a long time."
A Plague of Mercies (2023) Adam Pelzman "Delicate and intricate, A PLAGUE OF MERCIES is a generous, careful, care-filled book, overflowing with grief, and also with grace. Set in the early days of the pandemic in New York City, this novel-in-verse is both a wrenching and resonant meditation on loneliness and loss, and a gripping page-turner that gestures, reaches, toward hope and toward possibility."
The Fisherman and His Son (2023) Zülfü Livaneli "At the center of this novel stands unfathomable tragedy. Gracefully, masterfully, Zulfu Livaneli does not force the reader into trying--and failing--to fathom the unfathomable. Instead, this novel, which is thrumming with Keatsian negative capability, intertwines human misery and nonhuman mystery--the contemporary refugee crisis; a small island crawling with snakes; invasive, poisonous puffer fish and encircling, crafty cats; national histories of population transfers and personal histories of rotten marriages and youthful romances; dreams of a shark-headed man; a baby delivered from the depths by a father dolphin; corporate rapaciousness and environmental degradation; jasmine flowers in evening bloom--and in so doing, creates a loose and intricate tapestry of sorrow and solace, one that invites the attentive reader to glimpse, if even for a moment, 'the size of the cloth, ' as the poet Naomi Shihab Nye put it. Brendan Freely's translation is stark, elegant, and fluid; the story that unfolds is propulsive and dramatic, harrowing and multilayered. This is a wonderful book."
The Last Interview (2020) Eshkol Nevo "Eshkol Nevo’s The Last Interview is a generous, graceful book—at once wry and raw, mournful and hopeful, ironic and tender. This book is a moving story of loss, love, and friendship, a thoughtful meditation on the porous borders between reality and fiction, and a true joy to read."
