English Summary/英文概要： Shortlisted for the prestigious Sapir Prize, winner of UNSECO’s international competition for Short Stories from the Mediterranean, Amstel is a haunting collection of stories about family, love and longing. These captivating tales take conventional life and tilt it sideways, delivering a memorable blend of the real and the surreal: A mother invites her reluctant son for cocktails and Amstel beer, then drunkenly reveals a part of her life that would have better remained hidden; a lonely man invites a battered young mother and her son into his empty home and a new hope is born in him; a pregnant woman in Jerusalem and her Palestinian cleaning lady draw closer until the Intifada tests their comradeship; a crazy Moroccan girl who habitually bites the back of her hand until it bleeds, believes she’s found love; a woman exits her house momentarily into the night chill, the entrance door slams behind her and she has nowhere to go except to the small campfire Palestinian workers from The West Bank have kindled nearby – these are some of the diverse characters populating the intriguing stories in Amstel.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 入围著名的萨皮尔奖的获得者，联合国教科文组织在地中海的短篇小说国际竞赛冠军，《阿姆斯特尔河》是一个令人难忘的关于家庭、爱情和充满憧憬的短篇故事。这些引人入胜的故事采用了传统的生活方式，并将其倾斜，带来了一种令人难忘的真实与超现实的融合：一位母亲邀请她不情愿的儿子喝鸡尾酒和阿姆斯特尔啤酒，然后醉醺醺地吐露出原本应该是深埋的一些事情。一个孤独的男人邀请一个受虐待的年轻母亲和她的儿子进入他的空空的家，一个新的希望在他心中诞生。耶路撒冷的一名孕妇和她的巴勒斯坦清洁女工拉近了距离，直到起义开始考验他们的友谊。一个疯狂的摩洛哥女孩，她习惯性地咬着她的手直到流血，相信她找到了爱。一名妇女离开了她暂住的房子，进入寒冷的深夜，大门砰然一声在她身后关闭，她无处可去，除了约旦河西岸附近，巴勒斯坦工人点燃的小篝火。。。这些是在《阿姆斯特尔河》书中充满了有趣故事的各种各样的人物。。。“我在故事中发现了一种丰富而罕见的文学语言。”对《阿姆斯特尔河》的赞誉，“我惊讶于这个时代还竟然还有像托马斯•曼(德国作家)笔下这样经典辞藻的文学作家，充满了细节，火花和支离的图片交织在一起流动，从内部创造出一幅肖像，同时亦能从远处观察到。。。这是一部真正的经典故事，没有辗轧的注释。。。引人反思。” —— 来自以色列《国土报》Benny Ziffer点评 （Sandy）

Awards/获奖情况： Praise for Amstel:
“I discovered a lush, rare literary language in the story ‘Amstel.’ I read it and was dumbfounded that writers still exist who are capable of creating a sentence worthy of Thomas Mann, filled with detail and sparks and shards of images all flowing together to create a portrait from within and simultaneously observed from a distance…It is a truly classic tale, with no jarring notes…demanding a period of reflection before reading anything.” Benny Ziffer, Haaretz Daily

Edna Shemesh, author of Amstel, The Sand Dunes of Paris, Hotel Malta and Go, Pave the Sea, is a winner of UNESCO’s international Women of Mediterranean Short Story competition, shortlisted for the prestigious Sapir Prize for Israeli fiction, twice winner of the ‘Am Hassefer’ Translation Prize of the Israeli Ministry of Culture, and has translated into Hebrew such books as Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father and Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier. Edna Shemesh lives with her family in Rehovot, Israel.