I very much enjoyed this short story by Jewish writer [a:Amos Oz|15496|Amos Oz|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1217302225p2/15496.jpg].
I actually read this online, you can read it here:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/17/the-king-of-norway

The cherry on top is that The New Yorker has a podcast where [a:Jonathan Safran Foer|2617|Jonathan Safran Foer|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1383245072p2/2617.jpg] does a beautiful job at reading it. I read a couple of Jonathan's books but he might want to explore a second career narrating books! He has a very pleasant voice.

[b:The King of Norway|19206067|The King of Norway|Amos Oz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|27249493] is one of eight linked stories included in [b:Between Friends|17165933|Between Friends|Amos Oz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363657427s/17165933.jpg|19266879], all of them take place in the early 1900's in a Kibbutz (or Hebrew for gathering or communal settlement). I learned that Kibbutzim are Jewish collective communities based on Israel. The first one was called Degania and it was founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who dreamed of working the land and creating a self-sufficient,benevolent and fairer society.

Amos Klausner was born in 1939 in Jerusalem and at the age of 15, a few years after the suicide of his mother left him bereft, he joined a kibbutz in central Israel and changed his name to Oz, meaning "strength" in Hebrew. He (and later his wife and children) lived in the kibbutz until 1986.

[b:The King of Norway|19206067|The King of Norway|Amos Oz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|27249493] tells the story of Zvi Provizor, a middle-age bachelor with deep emotional issues. Zvi is the kibbutz gardener and apparently he is very good at what he does. He also has another hobby: to convey bad news which he hears in the transistor radio he carries around.

Because of this peculiar inclination, the rest of the community calls him the "Angel of Death" and no surprisingly don't like being around him too much.
Later on in the story Zvi meets Luna, a 45 year-old widow who likes him and is very interested in developing a relationship. They become close friends and start seeing each other every day.

One evening, as he regaled her with an affecting description of the starvation in Somalia, compassion for him so overwhelmed her that she suddenly took his hand and held it to her breast. Zvi trembled and pulled it back quickly, with a gesture that was almost violent. His eyes blinked frantically.

It's sad to see Zvi turned Luna away and continue his solitary life because of his inability to be touch, both physically and emotionally.

This is a very short story, but it exposed me to a different style of writing, subtle and unadorned but very enjoyable nonetheless.


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