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(Fiction, 656 pp. 2000) Two cousins, one from Prague, one Brooklyn-born, come of age during World War II and spin their fantasies, dreams, and fears into a wildly popular comic book series. See for yourself why this panoramic novel won the Pulitzer Prize.   Discussion questions from the Yiddish Book…...

(Fiction, 430 pp. 2016) Masked as a memoir, Chabon’s playful novel unfolds as the final confession of the narrator’s grandfather, whose tongue has been loosened by painkillers and whose memory has been by stirred by the imminence of death. It reflects on the difficulties of love and family, the shining…...

(Fiction, 414 pp. 2007) It’s bad enough that the Jewish mini-state established in Alaska for survivors of Hitler is about to revert to US control after sixty years. Now Yiddish-speaking cop Meyer Landsman has to solve a tragic murder that pits him against his ex-wife boss, an assortment of odd…...

(Graphic memoir, 228 pp. 2014) The New Yorker cartoonist describes the last several years of her aging parents’ lives, told through colorful cartoons and family photos. With her signature wit she offers laughs, tears, comfort and profound insights.  Discussion questions Kirkus Review Review by Alex Witchel, New York Times, May…...

(Fiction, 304 pp. 2020) A brilliant mathematics prodigy, Katherine grows up uncertain about other aspects of her identity. She puzzles over her apparent Chinese and American heritages, while blazing a singular and dazzling path through arithmetic competitions consisting entirely of astonished (and alarmed) males. Katherine discovers the power of outward…...

(Fiction, 240 pp. 2021) Reinventing the Netanyahus’ late-1950s Americana period as a college campus satire, Cohen fictionalizes a relationship between Bibi’s father, the then-obscure Israeli historian Ben-Zion Netanyahu, and his foil, narrator Professor Ruben Blum, a Bronx-born tax historian who stands-in for Diaspora Jewry.  Alternatively hilarious and laboriously rendered, The…...

(Nonfiction, 368 pp. 2010) The Ephrussis were one of the wealthiest Jewish dynasties in Europe, only to lose nearly everything with the Nazi conquest of Europe. Descendent de Waal traces the family’s tale from Odessa to Paris, Vienna, and London through a collection of Japanese netsuke carvings acquired by the…...

(Memoir, 288 pp. 2015) The author reflects on growing up in, and leaving, New York’s Skverer Hasidic community—an escape that ultimately results in his separation from his wife and children. Kirkus Review Review by Ezra Glinter, The New Republic, March 18, 2015 Review by Jay Michaelson, Religion News Service, March…...

(Fiction, 320 pp. Hebrew, 2016; English translation, 2020) An Israeli writer reluctantly returns to Amsterdam, the city of his birth, where he discovers the surprising truth about his mother’s wartime experience—unearthing a remarkable story that becomes the subject of his magnum opus. Part family mystery, part wartime drama, this novel…...

(Fiction, 224 p. 2019) A lapsed Jew returns to the fold and becomes obsessed with redeeming a spiritual mistake made 20 years earlier. Readers Guide  Kirkus Review  Review by Bob Goldfarb, Jewish Book Council  Review by Ron Charles, Washington Post, March 25, 2019 Nathan Englander discusses Kaddish.com (3:38 min. video)...