World Cup Wishes

Description

'Clever, moving and humane' Linda GrantAn intimate, warm-hearted novel about friendship, growing up and change Four friends get together to watch the 1998 World Cup final. One of them has an idea- let's write down our wishes for the next few years, put them away, and during the next final - four years from now - we'll get them out and see how many we've achieved. This is how World Cup Wishes opens, and from here we watch what happens to their wishes and their friendships as life marches on.The four men's bond is deep and solid, but tested by betrayal, death,and distance their alliance comes under pressure. Each friend offers a different perspective, though not necessarily a reliable one... and as they and the world around them change, so do their ideas of friendship and happiness. By the end they are forced to ask whether wishes can really be fulfilled. Or will their story turn out to be a requiem - for a generation, for friendship, or even for one of the four young men?Once again, Eshkol Nevo has produced a novel suffused with charm, warmth and an astonishing wisdom.

Eshkol Nevo was born in Jerusalem in 1971. He studied psychology at Tel Aviv University and then worked as a copywriter for eight years. Today he teaches creative writing at a number of academic institutions. Nevo has published a collection of stories, a work of non-fiction and his first novel, Homesick, was awarded the Israeli Book Publishers Association's Golden Book Prize (2005) and the FFI-Raymond Wallier Prize at the Salon du Livre (Paris, 2008). Eshkol is an Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation chosen artist - one of Israel's highest recognitions for excellence in the arts.

It's hard not to be completely swept away by World Cup Wishes... very readable and eloquent, but above all it is moving -- Liran Danash * Maxim * [Nevo] has an astute sense of drama and an ability to shape well-rounded characters...He has all the skills needed to fill a significant role in Israeli literature -- Omri Herzog * Haaretz * It brings tender emotional savvy to bear on the question of whether friendships - particularly those tight, testy bonds between groups of men - help people to grow as individuals or, in fact, hold us back * Daily Mail * What started as a realistic novel about everyday life in Israel evolves into a story about storytelling. In doing so, it confirms Nevo as one of the best young Israeli writers today * Jewish Chronicle *