Yishai Sarid: CHAMÄLEON

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Yishai Sarid





CHAMÄLEON
Israel is changing, how is this reflected in its
literature?





Yishai Sarid has dealt with the psychological situation of the
Israelis society in previous books. In “Monster” he dealt with
the deep influence of the Holocaust on the thinking of Israelis.
In his newest one, “Chamäleon”, he turns to the question how
right-wing populist policies are changing Israel. And how October
7th has fundamentally changed Israel. The reaction to October 7th
polarises the society, it radicalizes government politics, it
also creates rifts within families. The fictional family in
“Chamäleon” goes through this process with main character, the
journalist Shai Tamus, being promoted by the Prime minister,
slips into darker right wing conspiracy theories, while his wife
and daughter join the protests against the government.





In August 2025 Yishai Sarid signed an Israeli Artists’ petition
to stop the atrocities against the civilian population in Gaza
and to stop the war. He also spoke at demonstrations held in
Israel against the right-wing government and its policies. As son
of the left-wing politician Yossi Sarid the author grew up in a
Zionist family committed to peace with Palestinians. Sarid
addresses recent events in the political developments and the
changes in Israelis society: How has the memory of the Holocaust
been used to shape Israeli identity and how important is the
critical discourse on historiography in a country with different
narratives and claims to a land at this crucial moment in Israeli
history, when different concepts of Zionism – from liberal
secular to national-religious extremes – clash?


 


Yishai Sarid, born in Tel Aviv in 1965, is a
lawyer and novelist. The award-winning author – the Bernstein
Prize, the Brenner Prize, and the Levi Eshkol Literary Award
for Hebrew literature, and in France, the Grand prix de
littérature policière – wrote bestsellers like “Monster” and
“Schwachstellen”. His latest book “Chamäleon” was published in
September 2025 in German. Sarid lives in Tel Aviv.





Tessa Szyszkowitz is an author and journalist
living in London. She writes for the Austrian weekly Falter and
occasionally for the German daily Tagesspiegel and the Swiss NZZ
am Sonntag. Her latest book was “Echte Engländer – Britain and
Brexit” (2018).