Book Club Selections

(Memoir, 310 pp. 2017) In this rich family mosaic, Moscow-born, London-based writer and editor Elena Lappin explores the impact of her peripatetic, multilingual background on the development of her identity and her sense of home and self. As she reconstructs the stories and secrets of her parents and grandparents, each…...

(Fiction, 240 pp. Portuguese 2011; English translation 2014) This Brazilian novel about memory and identity covers three generations: a grandfather who survived Auschwitz and spent the rest of his life trying to forget it; a father in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease who is fighting to remember everything; and…...

(Fiction, 320 p. 2017)​​ Drawn from the author’s own experience, Shtum’s dark humor powerfully illuminates the heartbreaking-yet-inspiring challenges of lovingly raising a nonverbal child with autism (Shtum is British-Yiddish slang for silence). Struggling to cope emotionally, financially, and as a family, ten-year-old Jonah’s parents try unconventional methods, including the legal…...

(Memoir, 233 pp. Italian, 1975; English translation, 1984) A complex and beautifully rendered memoir by the author of Survival in Auschwitz.  A chemist by profession, Levi uses the elements as a frame for stories of his childhood in the Jewish community of Turin, his work with the Partisans, and some…...

(Fiction, 256 pp. Hebrew, 1998; English translation, 2001) This novel by one of Israel’s most celebrated writers reveals the complex underpinnings of an adulterous romance. Hamutal and Saul’s liaison blossoms unexpectedly in the Tel Aviv nursing home where they come to visit their ailing parents, offering them emotional shelter as…...

(Fiction, 253 pp. 1998) In this updated screwball comedy, Lipman employs a deft and light-handed manner to tackle anti-Semitism, intermarriage, and her heroine’s quest for inner growth and separation from family. Discussion questions Review by Lore Dickstein, New York Times, July 19, 1998 Review by Liesel Litzenburger, Chicago Tribune, June…...

(Fiction, 304 p. 2016) Two families in post-war Brooklyn are inextricably linked by blood, marriage, and a long-held secret. This debut novel is permeated with hope, happiness, heartbreak, betrayal, yearning, and disappointment. Discussion guide from the Jewish Book Council Kirkus Review Review by Evie Saphire-Bernstein, Jewish Book Council Review by…...

(Fiction, 288 pp. 2012) Having relocated from New York City to a cottage in Cape Cod, two men in a long-term relationship enlist a Brazilian Jewish immigrant to serve as a surrogate mother. Complications ensue as this character-driven novel sensitively and humorously explores gay marriage, Jewish identity and continuity, family…...

(Fiction, 288 pp. 2018) The story of a Berkeley literature student exploring his Jewish mother and Muslim father’s tangled roots in the history of Cairo’s ancient synagogue is intertwined with that of British twin sisters, Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 depart Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts…...

(Fiction, 304 p. 2011) Set in the heart of the Ottoman Empire during the first years of its chaotic decline, this debut novel follows a gifted young girl who dares to charm a sultan—and change the course of history. As the sultan’s interest in her grows, so, too, does her…...