A.B. Yehoshua, the acclaimed Israeli novelist whose storytelling offered human portraits that captured the conditions in a land fraught with political strife, died on June 14 in Tel Aviv. He was 85.

In an oeuvre of 11 novels, three short-story collections, and four plays, he tackled as variety of narrative forms — from surrealist to historical — and delved into uncommon subjects. “Critics praised him for his nuanced understanding of the contradictory impulses that bedevil people and his capacity to find tender humor amid sorrow and despair,” The New York Times said.

Mr. Yehoshua won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction for Mr. Mani in 1992. He also won the Israel Prize, awarded annually by the state for important cultural contributions, and in 2005, he was shortlisted for the first Man Booker International Prize, then given for an entire body of work.