Almost Dead: A Witty and Provocative Tragicomic Tale of Terror and Identity in Israel

"[An] original and powerful writer…. His clear and honest writing blasts right through the clichés and the politically correct surface to touch the chaotic and ambiguous core of the Israeli identity.” —Etgar Keret

“In a dazzling display of empathy, Gavron creates two equally compelling narrators, the bomber and his victim. This is a virtuoso work; a pitch-perfect rendering of real Israeli life in all its chaos, energy, humor and terror. I couldn’t put it down.” — Geraldine Brooks

Politically incorrect, provocative, and steeped in wit and irony, Almost Dead is a fast-paced tragicomic novel about the perfectly ordinary madness in today’s Middle East.

Told through the alternating perspectives of a bomber and his victim, this breathtaking novel asks a devastating question: what happens when two lives on a collision course finally crash?

• Dual POV: Experience the unfolding tragedy from both sides: Eitan 'Croc,' a cynical Israeli survivor, and Fahmi, the young Palestinian bomber locked in a coma, reliving the choices that led him to his fate.
• Dark Humor and Biting Irony: Navigate a world of suicide bombings, time-management start-ups, and post-trauma therapy with a voice that finds wit in the darkest corners of the conflict.
• A Haunting Survival Story: Follow Croc as he becomes an unwilling media sensation—the 'CrocAttack'—a man who keeps surviving, forcing him to confront the absurd lottery of life and death in modern Israel.
• Unflinching Social Commentary: A provocative look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that blasts through clichés to explore the chaos, energy, and terror of real life in the Middle East.

Assaf Gavron is a writer and translator. He grew up in Jerusalem, studied in London and Vancouver, and now lives in Tel Aviv. In Israel, he has published four novels, a short story collection, and a collection of falafel reviews.