Panther in the Basement

Set in the summer of 1947, this is a funny, touching, semi-autobiographical rites-of-passage novel about a lonely boy (nicknamed Profi, short for professor, because he is a bookish, serious kid) growing up in Jerusalem in the last years of British rule. From underground resistance, he is drawn into friendship with the enemy - a British soldier - to whom he gives Hebrew lessons in return for English instruction.