Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Yaakov Shabtai (1934 1981) was an Israeli novelist, playwright and translator, born in Tel Aviv. His best known work is Zikhron Devarim (1977), published in English in 1985 as Past Continuous. Written as a single paragraph, it was the first novel ever to be written in truly vernacular Hebrew. In its English translation the novel received international acclaim as a unique work of modernism, prompting critic Gabriel Josipovici of The Independent to name it the greatest novel of the decade, comparing it to Proust''s In Search of Lost Time. In Israel, Shabtai is also known as a playwright, having written such classics of the Israeli stage as Crowned Head and The Spotted Tiger. He also translated many plays into Hebrew, including works by Harold Pinter, Neil Simon, Noel Coward and Eugene O''Neill. Other works by Shabtai include Uncle Peretz Takes Off, a collection of short stories, and Past Perfect (Sof Davar), a continuation of Past Continuous in terms of narrative and style, published posthumously. In 2006 a collection of early stories was published under the title A Circus in Tel Aviv