The Tel Aviv Dossier [Paperback]

Lavie Tidhar (Author), Nir Yaniv (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

The wind picks up even more, pushing me, as if it's trying to jerk the camera away from my hands. I spin around and the camera pans across the old bus terminal and someone screams . . . Into the city of Tel Aviv the whirlwinds come, and nothing will ever be the same. Through a city torn apart by a violence they cannot comprehend, three disparate people a documentary film-maker, a yeshiva student, and a psychotic fireman must try to survive, and try to find meaning: even if it means being lost themselves. As Tel Aviv is consumed, a strange mountain rises at the heart of the city, and shows the outline of what may be another, alien world beyond. Can there be redemption there? Can the fevered rumours of a coming messiah be true? As the city loses contact with the outside world and closes in on itself, as the few surviving children play and scavenge in the ruins, can innocence survive, and is it possible for hope to spring amid such chaos? A potent mixture of biblical allusions, Lovecraftian echoes, and contemporary culture, The Tel Aviv Dossier is part supernatural thriller, part meditation on the nature of belief an original and involving novel painted on a vast canvas in which, beneath the despair, humour is never absent. Experience the last days of Tel Aviv . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

One day, in the city of Tel Aviv, an event transpired that was beyond the forces of nature. Reports were sketchy, but everyone agreed that something enormous had taken root, pushing the city outward and upward, its new slopes harbouring 'giant, shapeless forms . . . with a kind of ancient, patient gait . . . like caged animals who had been let out at long last.' At least that's what Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv would have the reader accept. Mingling traditional narrative styles, different points of view, apocryphal testimony, and podcast transcripts, the two authors have constructed a novel that is alternately cryptic, frustrating. baffling, and engrossing. The Tel Aviv Dossier attempts nothing less than the creation of a new literary mythology, and while it falls short, the venture is nevertheless worthy of consideration. The authors keep the reader off balance throughout, tossing around allusions to messiahs, religious conflicts, and otherworldly beings. Whatever has happened to Tel Aviv is beyond easy comprehension, and as survivors come to grips with their new reality they start inventing new legends. The authors continually shift the narrative perspective, eventually pulling out all the metafictional stops as a character in the second half of the book finds himself reading the very accounts that make up the first half. As the novel progresses, patterns emerge, and there is a hint that what the reader holds may very well be the Bible of a new age. It's an audacious conceit, and Tidhar and Yaniv are strong enough to keep the story readable even when it befuddles. Much of The Tel Aviv Dossier is exasperatingly oblique, and as a whole it feels rushed and incomplete. One wishes the authors had taken the time to flesh out events in greater detail. The Tel Aviv Dossier is an imperfect little beast, but in its pages lie the seeds of originality and passion. If Tidhar and Yaniv ever see fit to expand upon their new religion, the outcome is sure to be interesting. -----Cory Redekop, Quill & Quire
The Tel Aviv Dossier has to be the most enjoyably bizarre novel I've read. The authors, Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv. have woven a complex story of catastrophic destruction, psychotic characters and religio-political apocalypse (in both senses of the word) into a story that never ceases to amaze and confound from page to page. The first half of the book is presented as a dossier of first-hand accounts of the destruction of Tel Aviv by seemingly sentient tornados. These are a mixture of letters, emails, audio and video transcripts that quickly build up a picture of the chaos and carnage that are unfolding. You do need to concentrate as a large number of characters are introduced briefly only to disappear from the narrative. These include a deranged fireman, a young orthodox Jew undergoing a crisis of faith, a tourist, a ufologist and a disembodied head. The impression was similar to the film 'Cloverfield' - quite disjointed and jarring, no real idea of what's going on, but overall very effective. By the end of this section, my head was spinning. With Tel Aviv isolated from the rest of Israel, two characters now head in to the city to investigate and the narrative takes on a more traditional form. Sam is a member of the Israeli secret service and Mordechai a historian with dubious credentials. As they separately head deeper into the carnage the earlier narrative threads begin to come together and then things start to really get weird. I don't really know how to describe this book. It defies both categorisation and comparison. If you want a unique reading experience then treat yourself to a copy of The Tel Aviv Dossier. -----Gareth D. Jones, SFCrowsNest
If you are looking for something different and unusual, this book is it. --- --42SciFi-Fantasy.com

The Tel Aviv Dossier has to be the most enjoyably bizarre novel I've read. The authors, Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv. have woven a complex story of catastrophic destruction, psychotic characters and religio-political apocalypse (in both senses of the word) into a story that never ceases to amaze and confound from page to page. The first half of the book is presented as a dossier of first-hand accounts of the destruction of Tel Aviv by seemingly sentient tornados. These are a mixture of letters, emails, audio and video transcripts that quickly build up a picture of the chaos and carnage that are unfolding. You do need to concentrate as a large number of characters are introduced briefly only to disappear from the narrative. These include a deranged fireman, a young orthodox Jew undergoing a crisis of faith, a tourist, a ufologist and a disembodied head. The impression was similar to the film 'Cloverfield' - quite disjointed and jarring, no real idea of what's going on, but overall very effective. By the end of this section, my head was spinning. With Tel Aviv isolated from the rest of Israel, two characters now head in to the city to investigate and the narrative takes on a more traditional form. Sam is a member of the Israeli secret service and Mordechai a historian with dubious credentials. As they separately head deeper into the carnage the earlier narrative threads begin to come together and then things start to really get weird. I don't really know how to describe this book. It defies both categorisation and comparison. If you want a unique reading experience then treat yourself to a copy of The Tel Aviv Dossier. -----Gareth D. Jones, SFCrowsNest

If you are looking for something different and unusual, this book is it. -----42SciFi-Fantasy.com

About the Author

LAVIE TIDHAR is the author of the linked-story collection HebrewPunk (2007) and the novellas An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2009), and Gorel & The Pot-Bellied God (2010). He also edited the anthologies A Dick & Jane Primer for Adults (2008) and The First Apex Book of World SF (2009). NIR YANIV is a writer and musician living in Tel Aviv. His first short story collection, Ktov Ke shed Mishachat (Write Like a Devil), was published in Israel in 2007. His stories also appeared in translation in Weird Tales and other magazines. He founded and edited Israel s first online genre magazine, and in 2007 became editor of the print magazine Chalomot Be aspamia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: ChiZine Publications; 1st edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980941059
• ISBN-13: 978-0980941050
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,959,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's crazy....crazy awesome, December 15, 2009

By 

m.r.fruits (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tel Aviv Dossier (Paperback)

Have you ever thought to yourself, "You know, the books I'm reading just aren't crazy enough"? If so, THE TEL AVV DOSSIER might be something for you.

This is one of those rare books that defies all explanation. If you try to explain the plot to someone, you end up sounding like a rambling lunatic.

So I will just tell you this: It's crazy.

And awesome.

And really original.

It's the kind of book that makes you think WTF?, but I mean that in a good way. I am seriously in love with this book. It stays with you. It haunts you. I have spent a good deal of time thinking about this book. Dwelling on it. Trying to interpret it. I don't know if I've come up with any solid answers yet, but the journey has been a good time.

But what makes THE TEL AVV DOSSIER so impressive is that its craziness is so well done. Anyone can slap together some weird stuff, but it is t the authors' credit that this comes together so well. JRSavory says he thinks the authors are some angry Jewish men. Personally,

I don't know what's going on with the authors, but it makes me happy that they are somewhere out there writing stuff like this.

This is a true diamond in the rough. This book deserves to be a lot bigger than it is, and if you can't get a copy, you are missing out. I really recommend tracking down a copy of this book if you can find one. As of 12/16/09, copies can still be obtained through Amazon.ca. You might be able to get a copy from the publisher (ChiZine Publications) too. They seem to be a great little press with a lot of interesting dark fiction books of varying degrees of craziness. Check them out. I think they are going to be my new favorite thing. [...]

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange, surreal, angry..., October 4, 2009

By 

Frank R. SAVORY "FRSavory" (Boston's MetroWest, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tel Aviv Dossier (Paperback)

I finished "The Tel Aviv Dossier" about two weeks ago and honestly, I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.

I minored in religious studies in college, and since my marriage have been extensively studying Judaism, and honestly, I just don't know if I love this book, I hate it, or if it's just so utterly weird I can't put my finger on it.

I will tell you though that here we are almost two weeks later, and I'm still thinking about it and trying to put the pieces together in my head.

I'm giving the book four stars on that basis - any work of fiction, short of the classics, that can keep me thinking about it this long, certainly deserves at least four stars.

I will definitely say though that based on their writing, the authors definitely classify as a couple of angry young Jewish men, so keep that in-mind. The book is surreal, almost always explicit in the way it handles violence and sex, and definitely hostile towards almost everyone and everything.