Dov Alfon Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Dov Alfon is a renowned journalist, editor, and author from Israel. He is well known for his debut book called A Long Night in Paris, which has garnered great reviews all over the world following its publication in 2019. Alfon is an ex-intelligence officer of Israel’s Unit 8200, which is the most influential and secretive arm of the country’s Defense Forces. He has also worked as the chief editor of the most influential newspaper in Israel, Haaretz, as well as the editor in chief of a leading publishing house called Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir. Author Alfon used his experience gained during his service in Unit 8200 to write his first book. It opened to rave reviews throughout Israel and the rest of the world. The book went on to top the bestseller charts for a total of 24 weeks. The previous works of author Alfon have also been labeled as fantastically creative, incredibly inspiring, and revolutionary by many leading literary journals and magazines such as The New Yorker, Guardian, The Paris Review, etc.

Between 2008 and 2011, Alfon was employed as Haaretz’a chief editor. This newspaper is hailed as one of the most respected ones across the globe and Alfon’s work was praised a lot. Currently, he serves as the CEO of a non-profit cultural venture called Storyvid.io that aims at bridging the gap between media and literature. Alfon also takes out some time from his busy schedule to serve as the chief editor of Alaxon, a digital journal published in Hebrew based on Science & Arts. Author Alfon was born as Dov Patrick Alfon in 1961 in Sousse. He was brought up in Tel Aviv and Paris. The parents of Alfon moved around a lot and changed residences quite often while he was growing up. It was at the young age of nine that Alfon wrote his first short story. It was published in the Spirou magazine, a Franco-Belgian weekly comics. At that time, he used to attend the College Henry IV, in the 5th arrondissement.

On the occasion of Alfon’s 11th birthday, his family moved to Israel. After the family took shelter in Ashdod, Alfon joined the Rogozin Makif Guimel school. Alfon wrote about his experience during his family’s immigration and the later days of his childhood in his short autobiographical story called The Civilization Teacher. Following his schooling, Alfon underwent training and joined the military service in the Israel Defense Forces’ unit of technological intelligence. Alfon started writing for Pi Ha’aton in 1983, which is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s student newspaper. And within a period of one year, Nahum Barnea and Tom Segev invited him to become a part of a new venture of journalism called Koteret Rashit, a political weekly.

In 1989, he joined Haaretz and started his journey in this leading newspaper by writing a weekly column called Kivun Harouah. This column was based on the relations between money and culture. Three years later, Alfon was appointed as the editor of the newspaper’s cultural page. After this, his weekly column was added to the daily section known as Galleria. During the time Alfon was employed in Haaretz, he launched a few new journalistic formats. Some of the noteworthy ones among them were Captain Internet, The Marker Magazine, and the Weekend Magazine. These were included in the weekly, monthly, and re-designed segments respectively. Alfon remained editor of Haaretz until 1998. Later, he went on to work for Kinneret-Zmora_Bitan between 2004 and 2008. Alfon hosted a weekly cultural program called Nispah Tarbut on the Channel 2 television in Israel between 2002 and 2007.

Haaretz re-employed Alfon in 2008 and gave him the position of chief editor, which he held until 2011. In 2008, Alfon released a special issue of Haaretz in which the newspaper reporters were replaced by leading authors for one day. Alfon was able to extensive coverage of this experiment worldwide. Recently, Alfon has collaborated with author Etgar Keret as co-editor for producing an international cultural venture that deals with mixing cinema and literature in an exciting new format. Alfon’s dedication and passion in the fields of writing and journalism have fetched him several prestigious awards and accolades over the years, including the CWA International Dagger, Marianne award, Peace Through Media award, Jerusalem Prize, Ophir Prize nomination, Gold Medal, and the Editor of the Year Award.

The debut book written by author Dov Alfon is entitled ‘A Long Night in Paris’. It was released in 2016 and features the lead characters in the roles of Orianna Talmor, Zeev Abadi, and several others. The book opens by depicting that a citizen of Israel gets kidnapped immediately after his plane lands at the Raoci Charles de Gaulle airport. When this news reaches the Israeli intelligence, Orianna Talmor is asked to look into the matter and bring the back the hostage safe and sound. Orianna is a young and promising security officer in the 8200 intelligence unit. She races against time, against her commanding officers, and against certain economic and political forces to find the kidnappers and rescue the hostage. She learns that the only person who can help her in turning this mission into a success is Zeev Abadi. Zeev is a controversial and charismatic officer and wants to replace Orianna Talmar as an 8200 Special Section’s head.

Later, another Israeli citizen gets kidnapped from a hotel in Paris and the two kidnappings seem to have a common link between them. The two incidents lead to the collapse of the dark alliances in the office of the Prime Minister. Other individuals who appear to be having an important role to play in this case include a police superintendent from France, a communications consultant from the United States, a corrupt gambler from Austalia, and a ruthless commando from China. Orianna Talmar and Zeev Abadi realize that they are surrounded by enemies on all sides and must trust no one except themselves to succeed in the mission and save the individuals in captivity. Author Alfon seems to have written this story with a breathtaking pace and deceptive lightness. He has done a wonderful job of creating an intelligent and elegant spy thriller set against the backdrop of an ongoing Cold War. Overall, the novel is quite sophisticated, enticing, and engaging to read.