Hillel Halkin (New York, 1939) is a writer, literary critic and translator; His reports and essays on Israel, where he has lived since 1970, appear regularly in publications such as Commentary, The New Republic and The New York Sun. His first book, Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist's Polemic (1977), received the National Jewish Book Award and sparked heated debate. His Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel (2002) received the Lucy Dawidowicz Prize for historical essay. As a translator of Hebrew and Yiddish, he has translated into English works by A. B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, and Meir Shalev. At the age of 73, he published his first acclaimed novel: Melisande! What are dreams? (2012).