Rhyming Life and Death, By Amos Oz trs Nicholas De Lange

The power of Amos Oz's work derives from the tension between opposites; the tantalising possibility that they might be reconciled – and the exploration of how far apart they are, after all. His acclaimed memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, explored the struggle between right- and left-wing, mother and father, madness and sanity, comedy and tragedy, the political and personal. The battle between life and death is at the root of all.

In this slim yet weighty new novel, Oz explores the sparring between reality and fantasy, shedding light on the mysterious inner workings of the creative process itself, as if presenting an X-ray of an author's mind at work.

The protagonist of this intriguing narrative is, usefully enough, known as the Author, whom we meet sitting in a bar preparing to be interviewed. He begins constructing an imaginary life of the waitress, and this tangle of fictional musings grows as the Author meets more strangers, until soon it is difficult to extricate the real from the fabricated and we, too, have been caught up in this elaborate, enchanting web.