Featured Video: Matti Friedman on his RBC Taylor Prize nominated military memoir

After moving to Israel from Toronto as a teen, Matti Friedman served three years in the Israeli army. Part of a small group charged with holding a remote Lebanon hilltop (codename "The Pumpkin") Friedman's life-changing experiences became the basis of his hybrid non-fiction book Pumpkinflowers: An Israeli Soldier's Story (Signal Editions), which combines memoir, history, and reportage. The titular "flowers" refers to the military code for casualties.

Pumpkinflowers showcases Friedman's extensive journalistic experience (he has worked extensively with the Associated Press, based out of Jerusalem) and acts as an unflinching examination of the strange new warfare of the 21st Century and its repercussions, both human and political. The book has been lauded since its publication, nominated for both the Hilary Weston Writer's Trust Nonfiction Prize and the 2017 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in addition to its current nominated for the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize for Nonfiction, which rewards the finest book of non-fiction published each year. 

We're pleased to present the fifth and final video in our interview series with the Taylor Prize finalists, courtesy of and produced by the RBC Taylor Prize, speaking with Matti about Pumpkinflowers. He tells us about being involved in the Hebrew translation of the book, waiting on the call from Steven Spielberg, and the universal significance of the story of the Pumpkin.