One of Israel’s most celebrated novelists, Meir Shalev was born in 1948 in Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav. He is a bestselling author in Israel, Holland, and Germany; and he has been translated into more than twenty languages. His books include Two She Bears (2016), My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner, A Pigeon and a Boy, The Loves of Judith (Four Meals), Fontanelle, Alone In the Desert, and Esau. Russian Romance (The Blue Mountain) is one of the top five bestsellers in Israeli history and was reprinted in 2011. His most recent novel, Two She Bears, is an unconventional literary thriller about two murders – one committed as an act of vengeance and the second as an act of retribution. Shalev has also written twelve children’s books, as well as four collections of essays.He studied Psychology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and produced and hosted several radio and television programs.