Yoav Avni is an Israeli author, translator, editor, and writing mentor. His fiction includes novels and short stories. His novels have been published by two of Israel’s leading publishing houses, Kinneret Zmora Bitan and Keter. One of them, Three Things for a Desert Island, became a national bestseller, and he is a two-time winner of the Israeli Geffen Award for Best Speculative Novel, often regarded as Israel’s equivalent of the Hugo Award.
His latest novel, Time Clocks, was published in Hebrew in December 2024 and will be published in English on September 29, 2026, by Roundfire Books in the UK and US.His novel Crossing a River Twice was first published in Hebrew in 2016 and is scheduled for English-language publication in the UK and the United States in 2027.
Some of his short stories have been published in N-Zine (London), Words Without Borders, JewishFiction.net, and Jewcy.
His writing blends magic realism and speculative fiction with humor, emotional warmth, and a deep curiosity about human nature, drawing inspiration from authors such as Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut, Jerome K. Jerome, Gerald Durrell, and Douglas Adams.
About Time Clocks
Time Clocks is a time-travel novel about learning to be present.
Boaz Grand is an AI developer whose system, FocalAI, has become famous for producing cryptic prophetic limericks on a popular television show. One unfortunate appearance on the show ends with Boaz losing his job.
On his way home, he encounters three people who seem to have arrived in present-day Israel from completely different periods of history: a biblical shepherd, a nineteenth-century Frenchman, and a policewoman from the 1980s. Somehow, their arrival appears to match part of FocalAI’s latest limerick, drawing Boaz into a much larger mystery involving artificial intelligence, friendship, memory, and time.
But beneath the time travel, the novel is really about our relationship with the present: learning to recognize it, feel at home in it, and accept that it is the only part of time we can actually live in.
Why do you write in the genres that you do?
I have to admit, I don’t really think in terms of genres. Books describe pieces of life, and life itself is multi-genre. Suspense, romance, mystery, humor, magical realism, and ordinary reality all mix together, and that is true of my books as well.
I do always include a speculative element, because that is how I want to see the world: as a place where magic can exist alongside realism, and where, if you turn your head quickly enough, you might catch a glimpse of something wonderful.
I always try to write the books I want to read but that haven’t been written yet, and I’m always happy to discover that other people want to read them too.
Are you more of a fan of plot-driven stories or character-driven stories?
I think good books need both. I write stories that are strongly plot-driven but always centered on people.
If readers feel something real for the characters, whether it’s empathy, affection, irritation, or even dislike, and the plot is compelling enough to keep them turning page after page, that’s what I’m aiming for.
Fill in the blank: “People will like your book if they like stories about…”
People will like Time Clocks if they like stories about people who don’t quite belong where they are, mysteries that begin with impossible questions, humor mixed with emotion, and the idea that time travel may ultimately be less about escaping the present than learning how to live in it.
What are your thoughts on typewriters?
Tom Robbins, one of my favorite writers, has a line in Still Life with Woodpecker that goes roughly:
If this typewriter can’t do it, it can’t be done.
I’ve always loved the confidence, humor, and stubbornness in that idea.
I use a laptop, but in the end, whether it’s a typewriter or a computer, it’s only a tool. Nothing replaces the wonder of something flowing from the mind, through the heart, and all the way to the fingertips while you write.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I mostly write in the morning. I need light around me while I work, preferably sunlight, and if that isn’t available, at least warm light.
Although my books can be very different from one another, the process is usually similar. It begins with an idea, a thought carrying a small electrical charge. Then I cast the characters almost like a director, plan the structure like a builder, and finally write the book with much more freedom, shaping the language and allowing some magic in.
What are your passions/obsessions outside of writing?
Reading, coffee, art and good TV, and being a bit of an urban flâneur, a word I only learned on my last trip to London, for someone who likes to wander through cities and observe. When I travel, I can happily walk for hours through neighborhoods with no real destination, noticing shop windows, overhearing fragments of conversation, and watching how people move through a place.
I also exercise regularly, which is a useful counterweight to a profession that involves sitting still for long periods. And of course, for a writer, wandering around and wondering about people probably still counts as working.
Have you made any public appearances to promote your book?
Yes. I enjoy meeting readers in person and talking about how a book was made, not only what it is about. Around the English publication of Time Clocks, I have several UK events planned, including appearances at Watkins Books and The Owl Bookshop in London, as well as other interviews and literary events.
I also enjoy the sharp transition from being a person writing alone in a room to becoming a person looking for readers. And I would definitely count this interview as part of that process, a chance to introduce Time Clocks to readers who may not have come across my work before.
Who is on your Mt. Rushmore of greatest/inspirational authors?
Jerome K. Jerome, Douglas Adams, Tom Robbins, and Kurt Vonnegut.
It’s an unfair question because four spots are not enough, but those four represent qualities I return to again and again: humor, humanity, storytelling, freedom of imagination, and the ability to be serious without becoming solemn. Ian McEwan, Gerald Durrell, David Mitchell, and Mark Twain would all have their own peak across the valley, muttering about the selection process.
Have you ever mentored another writer with their writing?
Yes. I work with writers as a mentor and literary consultant, helping them move from an idea toward characters, structure, chapters, rewriting, and polish.
At first, I worried that helping other writers might take something away from the energy I need for my own books. Instead, I discovered that there is room for both. In fact, mentoring often sharpens my own understanding of the writing process, because explaining it forces me to understand what I actually do, not just what I think I do.
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