15 Facts About Aharon Appelfeld

Aharon Appelfeld was an Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor.

Ervin Appelfeld was born in Jadova Commune, Storojinet County, in the Bukovina region of the Kingdom of Romania, now Ukraine.

Aharon Appelfeld escaped and hid for three years before joining the Soviet army as a cook.

Aharon Appelfeld was reunited with his father after finding his name on a Jewish Agency list in 1960.

The reunion was so emotional that Aharon Appelfeld had never been able to write about it.

In Israel, Aharon Appelfeld made up for his lack of formal schooling and learned Hebrew, the language in which he began to write.

Aharon Appelfeld completed his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Aharon Appelfeld lived in Mevaseret Zion and taught literature at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and was often writing in Jerusalem's Ticho House.

Aharon Appelfeld was one of Israel's foremost living Hebrew-language authors, despite the fact that he did not learn the language until he was a teenager.

Aharon Appelfeld chose Hebrew as his literary vehicle for its succinctness and biblical imagery.

Aharon Appelfeld purchased his first Hebrew book at the age of 25: King of Flesh and Blood by Moshe Shamir.

Aharon Appelfeld writes short stories that can be interpreted in a metaphoric way.

Aharon Appelfeld's style is clear and precise, but very modernistic.

Aharon Appelfeld resided in Israel but wrote little about life there.

Aharon Appelfeld's work was greatly admired by his friend, fellow Jewish novelist Philip Roth, who made the Israeli writer a character in his own novel Operation Shylock.