Book Club Selections

(Fiction, 368 pp. 2006) The relationship between the spirit of the elderly, childless Friedl and three generations of a secular Jewish family whose “faithless” patriarch fled Poland for America in 1906 permeates this novel, which interweaves history, mysticism, and magic realism with the reality of anti-Semitism and spiritual redemption.  Discussion…...

(Fiction, 212 pp. 1974) This picaresque novel, deemed ahead of its time and now considered a cult classic, satirically chronicles the adventures of a young woman born to a black mother, in her quest to find her Jewish father in New York City. The myth of Theseus is updated, using…...

Nonfiction, 229 pp. 2000) Journalist Ross introduces six isolated communities in India, Peru, Brazil, Israel, and Uganda that embrace Judaism despite enormous obstacles.  Offering new perspectives, encouraging reexamination of relationships with tradition, and reminding us of the richness and diversity of Jewish life, the book also poses the ever-perplexing question…...

(Fiction, 432 pp. 1997) The first in Roth’s trilogy of novels exploring the life of American Jews of his generation, American Pastoral paints a masterful portrait of the perfectly assimilated Seymour “the Swede” Levov, whose perfectly constructed world falls apart when his daughter gets involved in radical politics.   Discussion…...

(Fiction, 416 pp. 2004) Roth’s stirring work of historical fiction depicts the impact on a New Jersey Jewish family of Charles Lindbergh’s defeat of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election.   Discussion questions from Houghton-Mifflin publishers Discussion questions from Reading Group Guides Review by Ron Charles, Christian Science Monitor,…...

(Fiction, 304 pp. 2010) Bucky Cantor is a vigorous young playground director when a polio outbreak mysteriously begins to ravage 1944 Newark. Faced with an opportunity to leave the city for work in a Catskills summer camp, Bucky is torn between personal safety and professional duty in this modern American…...

(Fiction, 288 p. 2018) A 19-year-old Israeli soldier whose best friends are Palestinian twins is driven to the breaking point by conflicting loyalties. This passionate, poetic coming-of-age story set in a mine field, brilliantly captures the intensity of feeling on both sides of the conflict. Reading Group Guide (Simon &…...

(Memoir, 325 pp. 2008) Ariel Sabar’s father, Yona, was born in the northern Iraqi village of Zakho, a place so remote that the Kurdish Jews who lived there still spoke the ancient language of Aramaic. Ariel, a journalist who grew up in Los Angeles, investigates his father’s dedication to preserving…...

(Fiction, 320 pp. 2015) In Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, shared by hipsters and Hassidic Jews, a professor of Jewish mysticism is diagnosed with an unusual heart murmur, becoming convinced that his heart is whispering divine secrets. When his frenzied attempts to ascend the Tree of Life lead to tragedy, his…...

When a veteran Hollywood character actor gets a call about a painting allegedly looted from his family by Nazis in 1944 Budapest, his life is thrown into personal, professional, and spiritual turmoil. Of the many questions asked — about family and identity, about art and history—a central, unanswerable predicament lingers:…...