By Nava Semel
In Fanny & Gabriel Nava Semel recounts the remarkable story of her paternal grandparents.
The posthumous English translation of Nava Semel’s Fanny & Gabriel (Gefen, 2021) is a welcome addition to her rich and creative literary accomplishments.
Nava Semel only became aware of her grandparents’ rather bizarre lives, separately and together, long after they died. Filling in some missing facts with her fertile imagination, she wrote a charming account that starts in Europe, wends its way through the United States, and ends in Israel. Sometimes she “watches” them from the sideline and makes comments on the situation. Reading Nava Semel is always a delight and this English translation of her Hebrew book, published four years after her untimely death, is a gift. For more information about Nava Semel, see an essay here.