Hebrew Book Week 2024: "Nothing has changed here since the days of Karl Marx" / Lily Milat occupies a shelf

One of the guidelines for writers when they come to tell a story is: Show, Don't Tell. And the intention is to "show" the reader what is happening and not to say it as a dry fact. For example: Don't say: 'She cried', rather, show her crying: 'And only one treacherous tear rolled down her cheek.' Last Tuesday the Hebrew Book Week opened in Sharona, Tel Aviv, and I, as a writer, also took part. But here, between us, on top of this Haifa newspaper, I will both tell you and show you the beautiful things alongside the less so. Receive: Hebrew Book Week 2024, without discounts.

Each travel book has its own, each writer has their own book each week. All I can testify here is about my personal journey in the company of the Hebrew book world. As with human societies, nothing has changed here since the days of Karl Marx and the class war is still raging even in the field of Hebrew literature. First we will clarify that this is not only a Hebrew source book, but simply a book written in Hebrew, also a translated book. And the intention is to celebrate the language and its reading possibilities, men and women and their favorite genre.

The book - "The Rotating Twin House"

In 2014, my children's book was published, The revolving twin house, who took me around in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and even brought me to the world's largest international book fair in Frankfurt. From the moment I was published, I decided that I would do my best for Spray and one of the things that a writer does besides writing is to show and present the book himself. Thus, I arrived in Tel Aviv, which then presented a book week in Rabin Square. Like everyone who comes from far away, I arrived from Kinneret early in the afternoon and the fair opened in the evening.

While wandering around the city, I passed by a shop window and from here a friendship between two independent women would develop, around literature and fashion. the designer, Moran Ganoser, that since then and every year, I open the book celebrations with her, sew her clothes myself, in Tel Aviv. And I, as a fashion lover, won and I have two designer friends, who are an inspiration to women, who stand firm even against the winds of the Corona, the wars and life itself - and continue to give those who visit them, moments of beauty that go far beyond clothes. What about clothes, you ask? As I see it, the garment is the binding of the writer in the same way that his words are bound on the shelf into the act of the book.

This year, both fashion and literature, everything will be related to the difficult war that has befallen us. She didn't skip over anyone here.

So I came to my annual visit to Moran Gnoser. We were happy and hugged and then it was our turn Aussie, who has been working with Moran for many years, to receive a hug. And Ossie lost her beloved brother, A pleasant life Remember the blessing. And what do we do? crying And how do we proceed? Look at Ossie and a few others that I will tell you about shortly, who did not seek to be an inspiration to anyone - and yet, they are the heroines.

I have friends and family who come all the way, just to get a hug. Because there is really no time for more than that. The very knowledge that they came especially for me, gives another validity to this volatile profession that I have chosen for me, which, like the way of art, only its starting point is known. And I have friends, writers and publishers, who make the phrase "writers' envy" irrelevant. We are truly happy in the happiness of others when there is something to be happy about. 

Therefore, I am also disappointed for the other, when he and she are treated as the proletariat, which can be diverted to the margins of the fair and let the bourgeois continue to be bourgeois. And an act that was like that was;
Since then we have returned to Book Week at the end of the Corona epidemic and due to ongoing renovations at Rabin Square, the fair has moved to Sharona Park. Personally, I prefer Sharona, everything is more convenient, of course relative to Tel Aviv - the parking, the access from the train, the services, the food and most of all - the vibe.

The stall owners were given positions and some were more or less satisfied, sometimes they asked to change, sometimes they greeted. There is one area, what to do, in the result test is the one that passes through more than others. And it is important, especially for small publishers, who have one stand, to be there, to be seen. Until this year, they were also there - and when people visit, from my experience, they want to find you in the same place you were in the previous years, because it's hard to find anyway and somehow they decided to leave the intelligence in Rabin Square and not bring someone to Sharona to help those in trouble. 

"Visit the booths pushed to the edges of the fair"

This year someone decided on a metamorphosis and decided to give their places to the bourgeois class, so that it is necessary to once again navigate in difficult terrain conditions for these small (and excellent!) expenses. So if you happen to travel to this fair, vote with your feet and visit all the publishers who have one stand, those whose reward is their love for literature, who will not necessarily earn their investment in the stand, but it is important for them to give a platform to their authors and give you the opportunity to get to know first-hand what is not necessarily You will find in bookstores.

Visit the booths that were pushed to the edges of the fair, talk to the first-time authors who came from all over the country, excited and waiting to talk to you. You don't have to buy the books, of course. In general, I recommend taking home only what touches you and you intend to read. But you and you the audience, you and you can prove that you see the only one, even through the mask of the big, predatory foot. 

And there is another matter, related to me personally. Last year, as part of the fair, I was invited to the literary salon, where I discussed my book, the bride of the sea. This year, when they asked to register, I registered on the day and as you know me, I don't improvise, I work seriously. I sat and wrote for several hours, a meeting that is suitable for half an hour, whether one reader comes or 100.

The meeting tells the behind-the-scenes of my book, Daughter number four. Well, they said that the placements would be approximately and not exactly at the hours we wrote, which is of course fine. But I didn't think that I would be classified as a proletarian and would only be informed about it on the opening day of the fair. Well, something there, in the annual organization this year, is not working so well for the writers. I'm not telling you to feel sorry for me, I enjoyed it and I was very fruitful anyway. My intention is to share things that are not told about, to let you experience something from the eyes of those you meet beyond the book stand.

The romantic genre - the rising star in the sky of literature in Israel

And there is the romantic genre. The rising star in the sky of literature in Israel. The readers here, against all the looks of condescension, managed to make a real revolution. From the hidden shelf, the female authors of the genre occupy stages in stores and also here during book week. This year we gave them their own enclosure and in the video I filmed you can see one of the examples of what the genre writer is worth to the readers and how they are willing to stand in lines and in the heat, just to get a hug.

Authors Sharon Zohar and Avishag Tzarhi sign their books ► Watch

Remember I wrote to you up here about heroines - so get a few more, and these are just the ones I know personally, I'm sure there are more. My friend, the writer Ayelet Sovitskyi, she is also the owner of Honey Publishing. Ayelet lost her brother, Roy Popplewell Remember the day of the attack on Kibbutz Nirim. fear the brave, Hannah Perry, was kidnapped and returned to us after 49 days. her other brother, Nadav Poplewell, was kidnapped with his mother and at the beginning of this month it was announced that he had been murdered. If you didn't know her story, you would come to the stand and see a woman with strength, lifting, moving, talking to readers and somehow a pillar that gives an avenue to the whole environment. And me? What is left for me but to hug? So that's what I did the times I passed by her stand.

In taking out diamonds, the bereavement struck twice. A writer from Meteor Publishing (both publishers under the same ownership), who is also my friend, my friend, the writer Michal Edmoni Remembered blessedly, murdered with her son in Kfar Gaza. In addition, the publisher's best-selling author, Avishag Tzarchi The lovely one, lost her beloved cousin, Barak Davidi Please remember that he was murdered at a party in Ra'i. And Avishag came and spent many hours signing her books for her readers, who returned her love.

And we haven't finished with the signs of the war in Diamond Publishing - the author who sold the most books this year in the romantic genre, according to a report by both Stimatsky and Tzomat Sharif, who is more than a talented writer, also a woman with a big heart, Sharon Zohar, came to sign her books on the opening night as well as the night after and she will continue to come in the following days. And let me tell you about my friend Sharon. She arrives so quietly, wearing a shirt with a picture of her beloved nephew who is still kidnapped, Omar Nautra, she doesn't move from the chair, three hours, four hours, a glass of water by her side, refuses me coffee again and again, and each and every one who comes to her, she seems to stamp only them, asking, smiling, chatting. And in her case, there are also male readers, who like the series of books about the sailor. One sailor even came, who gave her a notebook of the sailor as a gift. 

I can go booth after booth and tell you stories. I told about all these so that you can see the person behind the writer, who is standing there, waiting for you, the readers, because you are the oxygen tube of the work. As long as your eyes tan the pages, so will the creation continue and give life.

I would love to hear your experiences.
Happy Book Day and may good words always be by your side,
Lily