Leading author A. B. Yehoshua was born in Jerusalem in 1936, the fifth generation of a Sephardi Jerusalemite family. After studying Hebrew literature and Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he started a teaching career. From 1963 to 1967, he lived and taught in Paris; he is now professor of literature at Haifa University. Yehoshua has published numerous novels, short stories, plays and essays and is one of the best internationally known Israeli authors. He has received many literary prizes both in Israel and abroad, including the Brenner Prize, the Bialik Prize (1989), the Alterman Prize, England's Best Novel of the Year for Mr Mani (1992), the Koret Jewish Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Israel Prize for Literature (1995), the Giovanni Boccaccio Prize (Italy, 2005) and the Viareggio Prize for Lifetime Achievement (Italy, 2005). In 2007, his novel Five Seasons was named one of the ten most important books since the creation of the State of Israel. Yehoshua's work has been published abroad in twenty-eight languages.