Uncategorized

(Fiction, 576 pp. Hebrew 2008; English translation, 2010) Grossman’s epic novel follows Ora, the mother of an Israeli soldier on active duty, as she journeys away from home in order to evade delivery of the news that she fears: that her son has been killed in action.  Reader’s Guide from…...

(Fiction, 208 pp. Hebrew, 2014; English translation, 2017) Winner of the 2017 Man Book International Prize and National Book Award, this caustic short novel explores the life of a stand-up comic, as revealed in the course of one evening’s performance. In the dance between comic and audience, with barbs flying…...

(Nonfiction, 336 p. 2014) The remarkable story of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust and the Israeli violin maker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life offers a stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music. Violins of Hope Project…...

(Fiction, 383 pp, Hebrew, 2012 ; English translation, 2015) Two men cross the sea to marry women they have never met in order to help them escape war-torn Europe for the Jewish homeland. Their changing fortunes take them through war, upheaval, terrible secrets, tragedy, joy and loss. Vital, funny and…...

(Fiction, 352 p. Hebrew, 2014 ; English Translation, 2017) After one night’s deadly mistake, a man will go to any lengths to save his family and his reputation in this gripping, suspenseful, and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire. Kirkus Review Review by Ayelet Tsabari, New…...

(Fiction, 288 p. Hebrew, 2017; English translation, 2019) When a painfully average teenaged girl’s scream — and the false assumption of sexual assault that comes from it — radiates from a Tel Aviv ice cream parlor where she works, many lives are turned upside down.   Kirkus Review  Review by Keren…...

(Nonfiction, 224 p. 2018) A series of letters to an imagined Palestinian neighbor that include both concise histories—of such topics as the history of modern Zionism and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza—and Halevi’s own memories of growing up an American Jew afraid that Israel would be destroyed…...

(Fiction, 268 pp., 1998) Arranged as a series of interlocking short stories, this “broken novel” chronicles three generations of a family in war-torn Europe, the Orthodox communities of Brooklyn, and rural Oregon as they struggle to hold together in the face of “changing cultures and shifting fortunes.”  Review: Kirkus Review…...

(Fiction, 352 pp. 2009) After a prominent civil rights lawyer is left in a coma, his wife of forty years and their two daughters and adopted son are called upon to examine their lives together and their identities as individuals. When a dark secret involving the paterfamilias is revealed, the…...

(Fiction, 341 pp. 2021) Jacobo’s Rainbow delves into a New Mexican crypto-Jew’s developing self-awareness, emerging from tumultuous 1960s activism for civil rights, free speech, and the ambiguity of early U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Along the way, it exposes the mesmerizing and frightful sway charismatic leaders exercise on impressionable…...