(Fiction, 307 pp. 2007) Henryk Weiss, a young Polish Holocaust survivor, has reinvented himself at Harvard as Henry White. In a world governed by genteel prejudice and strong class values, both Archie and Sam, his non-Jewish roommates, have secrets of their own. Narrated by Sam, this novel probes the inner…...
Geraldine Brooks: People of the Book
(Fiction, 372 pp. 2008) One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Brooks has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious…...
Geraldine Brooks: The Secret Chord
(Fiction, 316 p. 2015) This inventive reimagination of one of literature’s most iconic and enigmatic figures renowned in history and legend, goes beyond the myth to bring David the man to life in Second Iron Age Israel. Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to…...
Jennifer S. Brown: Modern Girls
(Fiction, 384 pp. 2016) As an immigrant mother and her modern girl daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices in 1935 New York, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never again be the same. Discussion questions from Penguin Random House Kirkus…...
Ruth Calderon: A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales
(Midrash, 184 pp. Hebrew, 2001; English translation, 2014) Knesset member, scholar, and teacher Calderon offers a passionate reading and literary retelling of seventeen passages from rabbinic literature, with a particular emphasis on restoring the voice of women. Each chapter begins with the actual Talmudic text, followed by Calderon’s imaginative expansion…...
Talia Carner: The Third Daughter
(Fiction, 432 pp., 2019) In the late nineteenth century, Argentina offered an escape from poverty, pogroms, and the Pale — and held a disturbing secret. Talia Carner’s deeply researched novel reveals Russian Jews’ degradation under tsarist antisemitism and their desperation to ensure their children’s survival. When Batya’s father leaps at…...
Doreen Carvajal: The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity and the Inquisition
(Memoir, 320 p. 2012) Moving to Arcos de la Frontera in the Spanish province where her father’s family had originated, the author explores the fascinating, fraught — and ultimately personal — history of the Sephardic Jews who had been forced to become Catholic converts or exiles. Discussion questions Kirkus review…...
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