The fifth edition of the European Night of Literature, an event by EUNIC Israel – the network of European cultural institutes and embassies in Israel – invites audiences to embark on a journey through stories and places across Europe, discovering familiar and unfamiliar landscapes from fresh and unexpected perspectives.

This year, under the title “The Flight of the Story”, the event explores travel, migration, distance and belonging, and the ways in which places and experiences shape our identities. The title evokes both the “flight of the story” and a bird’s-eye view – the possibility of seeing the familiar from a different angle.

Over two evenings, leading Israeli actors will read selected works by European writers in Hebrew. The literary readings will be accompanied by conversations, panels, short film screenings, music and creative workshops.

20–21 October 2026 | From 19:00 (door opens at 18:30)
Liebling Haus, 29 Idelson St., Tel Aviv
Free admission

Tuesday, 20 October

The evening will feature excerpts from works originally written in Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian and Spanish, presented in Hebrew by actors Alma Dishy and Alon Friedman.

The programme will also include a panel discussion on translation, with Tehila Hakimi, Rita Kogan and Oded Wolkstein, exploring the challenges and possibilities of translating into and from European languages.

The event will be complemented by short films by young Israeli filmmakers: Pisces by Lee Dor, Good Question by Yair Gottfreid, and The Things We Do for Love and a Foreign Passport by Ayal Sgerski, alongside a musical performance by Soul Kaktus.

Wednesday, 21 October

The evening will feature excerpts from literary works originally written in Polish, German, Czech, Lithuanian, and Portuguese, presented in Hebrew by actors Ofir Zweigenbom and Yuval Segal. The Polish contribution will feature Dorota Masłowska, one of the leading voices in contemporary Polish literature, with an excerpt from her short story “Housewarming Party,” translated into Hebrew by David Shafranek from the collection Magic Wound (2024).

The readings will be followed by a conversation between Shiri Lev-Ari and renowned Israeli author Yishai Sarid, whose books have been translated into numerous languages. The programme will also feature short films, a musical performance by Salome (Shlomi Salome Shapira), and a late-night illustration workshop led by Gaia Luz.

The Polish contribution will focus on Dorota Masłowska, one of the leading voices in contemporary Polish literature. Masłowska burst onto the literary scene at the age of 19 with her debut novel Polish-Russian War under the White-Red Flag, and in 2006 received the Nike Literary Award for her novel The Queen’s Peacock.

Her writing combines innovative language, slang, popular culture, absurdity and black humour with sharp observations on identity, society and contemporary culture.

As part of the event, audiences will hear “Housewarming Party”, translated into Hebrew by David Shafranek, from the short-story collection Magic Wound (2024). The story presents, with irony and grotesque humour, a world in which success, status and outward appearance become substitutes for authentic relationships and a sense of belonging – themes that resonate strongly with the event’s focus.

The story by Masłowska is also a first glimpse of a joint project by the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv and Ahuzat Bayit – an anthology of short stories by 12 contemporary Polish women writers, to be published in March 2027.

The anthology will feature eight translators, graduates of the Polish Institute’s translation workshops led by Miriam Borenstein, alongside prominent women writers from different generations, many of whose works will appear in Hebrew for the first time.

The reading of “Housewarming Party” at the European Night of Literature offers a first look at the project and an opportunity to discover one of the distinctive voices of contemporary Polish literature.