In its 1/4 century of life modern Israel has fashioned its own well-defined national culture, with unique contributions to the world's treasure of contemporary art, music & writing. Firstfruits is, in effect, a 25-year harvest of outstanding Israeli short fiction, an area in which Israeli writers are notably skilled. Carefully chosen from the abundant collective output Firstfruits is a mirror of the life-style in Israel, reflecting the varieties of people, the complexity of national & personal problems, the intensity of life in what is still essentially a pioneering enterprise. Here, in these 15 stories, we find writers of varying views & many backgrounds coming together on an ancient soil, the older writers with their memories of yesterday, the younger writers with their visions of tomorrow. Here are evocations of childhood in Israel, of adjustments to the kibbutz way of life, of the atmosphere in the modern cities of Israel, of the links with the Jewish past. Here, too, we see a young & vigorous people forced to live in a state of military alert under the threat of annihilation. James A. Michener has lived in Israel & knows its people & its problems. In selecting these stories, he has sought to provide a full spectrum of Israeli life. Michener, in a warm introduction to Firstfruits, writes of Israel & its "It was a land long dormant which sprang to abundant life. It was a desert of sorts which waited sleeping for the awakening rain... That I was able to witness part of this miracle has been one of the major joys of my life. That I was able to write about some of the accomplishments in those years of awakening has been satisfaction that will never diminish." Authors include Benjamin Tammuz, Asher Barash, S. Y. Agnon, Yitzhak Shenhar, Aharon Megged, Haim Hazaz, Yehuda Yaari, Hanoch Bartov, Avraham B. Yehoshua, Natan Shacham, Hedda Bosem, Yitzhak Orpaz, Amos Oz, Yoram Kaniuk, and Moshe Shamir.