Julia Fermentto Tzaisler

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Julia Fermentto Tzaisler was born in 1984 and raised in Kfar Saba, a suburb of Tel Aviv. She has been heralded by the Israeli press as "a brave new voice" (Haaretz), and "if not the voice of her generation, then at least one of its chroniclers" (Prof. Eva Illouz, Hebrew University). Safari, her debut novel, was an Israeli bestseller. Her short stories have been translated and published in several languages. A journalist, essayist and critic, Fermentto Tzaisler has a Ph.D. in Jewish American Literature from UC San Diego. Julia Fermento Tzaisler has been nominated Artistic Director of the prestigious Jerusalem Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim.

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David Duvshani is a painter and comic artist. He is a graduate of the Beaux-Arts Academy in Paris and the MFA program at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. His works have been exhibited in Israel and internationally. He was a comic columnist for Tohu magazine and the Haaretz newspaper, where he collaborated with writer Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler. Together, they published the graphic novel Butcher Shop of Spirits (Tangier). In 2018, his book The Crusades was published in France (Hoche).

 

Water Dreams

Illustarator: David Duvshani

Picture Book

Year: Forthcoming

38 pp.

 

Translation rights: World excluding Italian. Italian language edition published by Giuntina,

Florence, 2025.

Audio visual rights: World

Translation: English language dummy available; Italian pdf; Hebrew original

 

Dreams of Water recounts Manu’s tale - a 6-year-old girl who travels abroad to Venice with her parents for the first time in her life. During a guided tour of Venice’s Jewish Ghetto, her parents eagerly follow the guide, while Manu is bored. As they tour  the Scola Canton Synagogue, and the guide shows them the wooden panels depicting biblical episodes from the Book of Exodus, Manu looks at the medallions and drifts into her inner world. In her imagination, Venice and the biblical story of Exodus blend into one funny and delightful world. In her imagination, the redemption of the Hebrews from slavery is reincarnated in Venetian settings, with a Moses basket gently floating on the canals. The story exemplifies how the ways that children listen and absorb information often does not coincide with their parents’.

Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler is an award-winning author and recipient of the Ministry of Culture Prize for Emerging Writers. David Dubashani is an illustrator whose works have been exhibited in Israel and internationally. Together, they created the comic column Hishuvei Kitzin for Haaretz newspaper and the graphic novel Butcher Shop of Spirits. They live in Tel Aviv.

 

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Critical Praise for Past Works

 

The graphic novel Butcher Shop of Spirits is simply delightful. It blends humor, Yiddish, Jewish mysticism, miniature detective stories, and Eastern European folklore with a touch of Agatha Christie, creating a colorful and entertaining spectacle. At the forefront of each image are the details themselves, while the comic brims with sharp, ink-soaked humor, bold colors, and a free, non-realistic style… A fusion of the Jewish, traditional, and folkloric world with the modernity of a Jerusalem crime investigation, it becomes a bold and contemporary work that feels deeply relevant to the present day and to this moment in Israel.

Maya Gez, Maariv

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Julia Fermentto Tsaizler: Fiction

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