Work set in France and Spain, then US and Israel's so awful (3,3,4,5)
I believe the answer is:
the sun also rises
'work set in france and spain' is the definition.
(novel by Ernest Hemingway)
'then us and israel's so awful' is the wordplay.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'awful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'then'+'us'+'israels'+'so'='thenusisraelsso'
'thenusisraelsso' anagrammed gives 'THE SUN ALSO RISES'.
(Other definitions for the sun also rises that I've seen before include "novel" , "Literary work" .)