Uri Adelman ( he, אורי אדלמן; September 3, 1958 – August 5, 2004) was an Israeli writer, musician, composer, computer expert, and professor at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

Biography

Adelman was born and raised in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

, near

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, the 8th generation of a German-Jewish family hailing from

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Adelman used the

TAU Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, ταυ ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300. The name in English ...

's musicology department where he worked as a setting for his first thriller novel, ''Concerto for Spy and Orchestra''. His second novel, ''Lost and Found'', was a

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

about

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

moshavnik A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

agents, who alternated frequenting the

Jerusalem Cinematheque The Jerusalem Cinematheque is a cinematheque and film archive in Jerusalem. History The Jerusalem Cinematheque was founded in 1973 by Lia van Leer. It was originally located in Beit Agron in the center of Jerusalem. A new building overlooking the ...

with flying secretly to Cyprus. Written using short chapters and clear, direct

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, the novels were bestsellers in Israel, culminating in translations to German, Greek and Japanese. Critics in Israel praised ''Lost and Found'' as "the perfect Israeli thriller", and his writing has received favourable comparisons with

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Am ...

. In addition to 4 novels, Adelman wrote computer textbooks for the general public. He died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in a hotel room in

Ramat Aviv Ramat Aviv Alef or Ramat Aviv HaYeruka, and originally plainly Ramat Aviv ( he, רָמַת אָבִיב, ''lit.'' Spring Heights), is a neighborhood in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel. History Ramat Aviv was founded in 1950s following the great inf ...

, Tel Aviv, where he was writing his next thriller.

Works

* ''Concerto for Spy and Orchestra'' (

: קונצ'רטו למרגל ולתזמורת) * ''Lost and Found'' (

: משוואה עם נעלם) * ''Tropic of Venus'' (

: בסימן ונוס) * ''The Graveyard Shift'' (

: שעות מתות)

References

External links

Bio at The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
1958 births 2004 deaths Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli novelists Thelma Yellin High School of Arts alumni Israeli non-fiction writers Hebrew-language writers 20th-century novelists 21st-century novelists Tel Aviv University faculty {{Israel-writer-stub