Few human conflicts are more universal than the clash of generations, as idealism shifts and relevance becomes a slippery slope.

Maya Arad, considered the most important Hebrew-language author living outside Israel, explores those dilemmas in The Hebrew Teacher, a collection of three novellas, her first work translated from her native Hebrew into English: A veteran Israeli professor at an American university feels both baffled and threatened by a rising “post-Zionist” colleague; a mother visiting her son  in California finds herself unwelcome in his new life; and an Israeli immigrant struggles to help her daughter survive the social complexities of an American middle school.

Since moving to the United States in 1994, Arad has lived many of these realities.

Across her 11 novels written in Hebrew, she masterfully blends suppressed despair, pathos and wry comedy — offering a rare and compelling voice in contemporary literature.