Oz, Amos 1939–

Oz is an Israeli novelist, short story writer, editor, and essayist. His work is rich in symbolic and allegorical overtones: the geographic characteristics of modern-day Jerusalem become in his fiction a symbol of human isolation; the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the Christians during the Crusades alludes to the current crisis in the Middle East. Both the depth of his thematic concerns and the consistent high quality of his prose mark him as one of the finest writers in Israel. (See also CLC, Vols. 5, 8, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 53-56.)