Shifra Horn

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Born and raised in Jerusalem, Shifra Horn is the scion of a family that has lived in the city for five centuries, descendants of the scholar Maimonides. Horn has published six bestselling novels, a collection of short stories, three non-fiction books, and four books for children. In a prolific career, Horn has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Israel WIZO Prize (1997), the Bat Yam Prize for Literature (1997), the Prime Minister's Prize (2005), the ADEI-WIZO Prize (Italy, 2006), the Brenner Prize (2006), and the French WIZO Prize for Ode to Joy (2008). Her novel Scorpion Dance [Promenade à Deux] was awarded the Minister of Culture’s Prize (2014) and the ADEI-WIZO Prize (Italy, 2017). Five of her novels have been awarded Gold and Platinum Awards by the Book Publishers Association; in 2002, Horn was nominated Literary Woman of the Year by the financial daily Globes. 

 

Horn’s work engages intimately with questions of identity and belonging—themes she explored as a guest of the Israeli television program Who Do You Think You Are?, based on the BBC series of the same name. Tracing her roots back ten generations, from Jerusalem to Bukhara-Uzbekistan via Odessa, Horn makes an astonishing discovery about her father’s family—whom, until then, had all been presumed to have perished in the Holocaust. 

 

Horn’s books have been published in nine languages, including English (St Martin’s Press, Piatkus), French (Fayard), Italian (Fazi), German (Bertelsman, btb), and Dutch (Archipel/ Arbeiderspers).

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Novel: O Daughters of Jerusalem

Novel: Scorpion Dance

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