R.I.P.: Ephraim Kishon (24/08/1924 - 29/01/2005)

The world's most famous and most-read satirist, Ephraim Kishon, died yesterday (29/01/05) at the age of 80 in Switzerland...

Ephraim Kishon (aka Ferenc Hoffmann) was an Isreali writer and journalist. In Europe he became, with his humourous novels and narrations, one of the most popular satirists.
Kishon was born in 1924 in Hungary. In 1949, after having been in German and Russian labour camps, he went to Israel, where he worked as a craftman. In 1952, he published political and satirical glosses, for instance, in Israel's most read daily newspaper Ma'ariv. As a free writer Kishon wrote novels about human weak points, social injustices in Israel and marriages. However for Kishon these weak points in society, customs and ways of life are the same everywhere, not just in Israel. Apart from his novels, he wrote several plays and screenplays. Till 1997 he published more than 50 books, translated into 34 languages. Worldwide, he has published (till today) around 40'000'000 (!) books.

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