Alon Hilu

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Alon Ḥilu (Hebrew אלון חילו) (born Jaffa, Israel, June 21 1972), is an Israeli novelist.

His first novel, Death of a Monk (Hebrew מות הנזיר) (Xargol, 2004), is based on a historical blood libel against the Jews in Damascus, Syria, and offers an original homosexual interpretation for the historical events.

The novel was shortlisted for the prestigious Sapir Award in Israel (2005), and was awarded the Presidential Prize for literature (Israel, 2006). Death of a Monk has been translated into English (Harvill Secker,London), and is being translated into French (Edition Du Seuil, Paris), Greek (Metaichmio, Athens) and Dutch (Ambo Anthos, Amsterdam).

The new novel of Hilu, "The House of Dajani" (or "La Maison Dajani"), is a fictional retelling of the history of early Zionism. The book, published in Hebrew in February 2008 by Yedioth Sfarim, is being transltaed into several languages. It was recommended by Israeli President Shimon Peres as "an extraordinary book".

During 1987 to 1988, Hilu wrote radio plays for the Israeli Radio. During the 90s, two short stories by him were published in literature magazines in Israel: "The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem" ("גן החיות התנ"כי בירושלים") ("Iton 77", 1992) and "Last Seen" ("נראה לאחרונה") ("Moznaim", 1993).

Hilu earned a degree in dramatic writing at Tel Aviv University, studying under Israel’s leading playwrights, such as Yehoshua Sobol and Shmuel Hasfari. His plays, "The Wedding" ("הערב חתונה") and "The Day of the Dogs" ("היום של הכלבים"), were produced in theatre festivals in Israel, and were both translated into English for the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club.

Hilu also holds a degree in law, and in addition to writing practices Intellectual Property law as a legal counsel at an Israeli hi-tech company.

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Last updated on Wednesday June 25, 2008 at 02:50:00 PDT (GMT -0700)
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