To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account by Saul Bellow; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner

This extraordinary book is the result of Saul Bellow’s sojourn in Israel in 1975. A personal record of his stay—his experiences and impressions—as well as a meditation, it crackles with wit and controversy on America’s relationship with this embattled country.

Using quick sketches and vignettes, Bellow captures the personal opinions, passions, and dreams of several Israelis, and he also adds to these his own reflections on being Jewish in the twentieth century. The varying viewpoints of those he encounters and interviews offer a revealing look at the history and challenges of Israel, and Bellow’s passionate storytelling draws listeners in to share in his experience.

“An impassioned and thoughtful book…Bellow delights in the liveliness, the gallantry of Israeli life—people on the edge of history, an inch from disaster, yet brimming with argument and words.”—New York Times Book Review

Saul Bellow (1915-2005), was born in Quebec and raised in Chicago. Three of his novels, The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler's Planet, won the National Book Award for Fiction. He also received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.He was also the author of several plays, short stories, and critical essays. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, he served as a war correspondent for Newsday. He taught at New York University, Princeton, and the University of Minnesota, and served as chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.