Amazon's editorial team has chosen "Pumpkinflowers" as one of the ten best books of 2016. The list: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: A brilliant, wise, fantastical yet grounded portrayal of a young slave seeking her freedom on a real underground railroad. The Wolf Road by Beth...
On Nov. 3 (7:30 p.m.) I'll be speaking in Houston as part of the Book & Arts Fair at the Evelyn Rubinstein JCC. Details here. On Nov. 4 (12 noon) I'll be speaking at Rice University. Details here. ...
The Writers' Trust of Canada has announced that Pumpkinflowers is one of five finalists for this year's Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction. The winner of the prize, considered the “richest annual literary award” for a nonfiction book by a Canadian author, will be announced at a ceremony in...
The 'New Middle East' That Never Was P. David Hornik Matti Friedman, a journalist and writer who moved from Canada to Israel in his late teens in the late 1990s, has written a powerful little book, Pumpkinflowers, that takes you deep into Israeli and Middle Eastern reality. The...
A Cedar of Lebanon Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2016 Amy Newman Smith Matti Friedman came home from Outpost Pumpkin, where he was based during his tour of duty in Lebanon, not long before Israel made the decision to withdraw from the “security zone.” “When the army pulled...
Douglas Ollivant, a retired US Army officer who served two tours in Iraq, and a former National Security Council Director and Senior Advisor in Afghanistan, wrote this review for War on the Rocks (June 30, 2016): Iraq veterans finally have their book; a manuscript that really deals...
I'll be in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4 -- details here: Sydney Jewish Writers Festival Sat., Aug. 27, 7:30 p.m.: Israel’s Battle Lines (with Dov Lipman and Debbie Whitmont). Details here. Sun., Aug. 28, 12:30 p.m.: Unearthing Israel’s Hidden Stories (with Michael Visontay)....
The Council on Foreign Relations podcast picked Pumpkinflowers as a recommended summer read, and CFR's Bob McMahon, James Lindsay, and Elizabeth Saunders discussed the book on the June 16 podcast. Listen to it here. ...
June 22, 2016 "Pumpkinflowers" has been chosen as one of Amazon's top 20 books of the year so far. It's also included in the top 20 books in the History and Biography/Memoir categories. There are lots of great books on the list, which you can see here...
By Ben Judah June 16, 2016 The Hebrew of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is very different from the kind I was taught at synagogue. Wounded soldiers are “flowers.” Dead soldiers are “oleanders,” “their dicks were broken.” “Lebanon,” for the Israeli writer Matti Friedman’s generation, means not just...