Check out the books that 75 speakers at Jewish Book Week recommended to celebrate 75 years of the festival.
“The funniest novel of ideas you will ever read.”
“This Russian-Jewish poet was one of the great poets about Stalinism and deserves to be better known by Jewish readers.”
“I read this as a science obsessed teenager. Levi’s use of science as a lens through which to see the atrocities of the Holocaust is a powerful tool.”
“It’s a cracking novel that’s got science in it.”
“A beautifully written telling of an Israeli Mizrahi story.”
“Shalvi was responsible for profound changes in the state of gender equality in Israel. We remain fortunate to have her as a model, a mentor, a guiding light.”
“It gives a lot of insight into Bialik’s life, and is an excellent translation into English of his Hebrew poetry by Peter Cole.”
“Spiegel is hardly known today and this novel of the Lodz ghetto is absolutely gripping in its characters and beautifully translated, by Juilan Levinson.”
“It captures that subtlety of cerebral but intense feeling and context that is unique to Israeli literature, and particularly powerful in being told from a woman’s perspective.”
“Seidman examines the complexities of this radical woman born in 1883 and the challenges she faced in transforming Jewish educational opportunities for women that still resonate today.”
“It’s the bitingly-acerbic wake-up call we can’t shy away from.”
“The book is a wonderful classic, filled with endless tales that speak to each of us at different times in our lives.”
“It’s a rich and generous introduction to the writer, born in a Ukrainian shtetl, who became one of the most original, exhilarating Brazilian, Latin American, and global, authors of the 20th century.”
“It is timely, thought-provoking and reassuring.”
“It talks of a lot of vastly unknown Jewish authors whose fate was inevitably linked to the disintegration of European society in the years following the First World War.”
“An exquisitely written and quite unique story of an only child, tall gangly, gay, toothy and acne ridden-growing up within the confines of a terrible family secret. The trouble is, it’s a secret from him as well.”
“It tells the Two State Story with no attempt at a solution, and is full of insight and compassion for both sides.”
“A poetic, politically ambitious novel using droplets of water to link stories around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with the Thames.”
“It his best work and his first.”
“A beautifully written and compelling romance by one of the greatest Yiddish writers ever.”
“Exploring how we can listen to each other better and bridge differences is the need of the hour.”
“It his best work and his first.”
“The novel about the Shoah, filled with tenderness, humanity, fury and wit, a piercing portrait of Nazism and a testament to the Jewish people.”
“Masterfully depicts the ostracisation and scapegoating of immigrants within a small town in France, foreseeing much of the horror to come following its publication in 1939.”
“Gives an important insight into the roots of the Middle East conflict.”
“It skilfully combines the traditions of Yiddish narrative with absolutely modern techniques to create a pure, compelling and totally original book.”
“A fascinating evocation of the crisis experienced by prominent German-Jewish intellectuals in the face of the rising nationalisms of the twentieth century.”
“It could change your life.”
“History repeats itself. The hated Jew is made to be the perpetrator of all that is bad and it takes a century to exonerate him.”
“Deeply human and humane portrait of the interplay between disfunction and genius.”
“It launched me on a lifelong quest, so far unsuccessful, to find a novel with a better plot, and put me off the attraction of violent revenge.”
“An extremely relevant book for today.”
“Brilliant historic analysis, wonderful style with a fresh illuminating approach to history and the story of the Jews.”
“One of the most staggeringly brilliant works of non-fiction I have ever read.”
“Calm far reaching insight in extreme days.”
“It tells a Jewish history that is rarely centred, in a cultural landscape where Black and brown Jewish histories are still too often marginal or absent.”
“It’s a tour de force of style and imagination, and a moving fable about the legacy of the Holocaust in Israel.”
“Written in the 12th century, this imagined conversation between the Khazar king and a rabbi is still today a powerful essay on the special place that the Jewish people occupy in the world.”
“It is about the return of the past which, “all of a sudden is completely useless.”
“It’s warm, funny, surprising and engaging, and it won the JQ/Wingate a few years back but I don’t think enough people know of its existence.”
“Moving between the mythical and the real, it brings to mind Dostoyevsky, Kafka and I.B. Singer and leaves the reader facing an ambiguity that feels at once mysterious and deeply human.”
“It’s an extraordinarily clear-sighted, erudite, wry investigation into the politics and poetics of caring and care.”
“It might help broaden your understanding of the Israel/Palestine issues.”
“Burkeman tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.”
“A fascinating saga of a German Jewish family from the 1880s to 1940, newly translated 70 years after its initial publication.”
“Roth combines deep, psychological insight with deft humour and lyrical prose. The depiction of a declining empire also speaks to our moment’s anxieties.”
“This wonderful Israeli novel grows more and more prescient by the day.”
“It discusses a time when it was possible to be both a radical thinker and an observant Jew- even an anarchic rabbi. This book reminds us that, as Jews, there is a strength in thinking differently.”
“I read this with my son because it is divided into short vignettes that capture his early years growing up in Bilgoray and his development from a young naïve hasid to an aspring writer.”
“It relates to the fragility of democracy in our own time.”
“It combines history with narrative drive and a deep understanding of the chaos and terror of what it meant to be Jewish in the last century.”
“Rather than idealising the old world of Hasidic Judaism, Wiesel tells us stories about the rebbes in which they talk to and challenge God; he never shirks on the pain and pathos of human existence.”
“This book will resonate with those of us who grew up close to the world of our immigrant grandparents who navigated themselves through a changing world with vision and humanity.”
“It makes you re-think what it is to be a parent.”
“This memoir of her father’s shifting identity is unexpected and nuanced.”
“It is a brilliant combination between mystery and modernism.”
“She writes from the hip. Firing out short bursts of stunning prose wrapped around a narrative that takes Jones as a young girl across America into situations more dangerous than her years deserve.”
“Funny and poignant. Sometimes it’s easier to gain insights into one’s own culture obliquely, through the experiences of a parallel one, in this case, that of Caribbean London.”
“It’s a lyrical yet piercing exploration of queer post-Soviet and specifically Ukrainian Jewish identity.”
“It encapsulates so many philosophical issues through one brilliant insight.”
“It shows Dickens’s intellectual and emotional journey under the guidance of a Jewess called Eliza Davis, creating one of the most sympathetic portrayals of a Jew in Victorian literature.”
“This sprawling yet engrossing work does what many books promise but very few deliver: It changes the way you look at the world.”
“It’s a parable for our times, a beautifully written but frighteningly plausible dystopian depiction of what can happen when the rule of law breaks down and populist authoritarianism takes over.”
“They have sustained my soul during challenging moments and at others have filled me with joy.”
“An extraordinary story of how librarians went undercover to gather information for the war effort from across Europe and elsewhere.”
“We all need to be reminded of the role that bloody-mindedness as well as brains and luck play in the survival of Jews.”
“I don’t usually read novels but I read this around the outbreak of Covid-19 and something ‘clicked’. It is a haunting picture of where bad decisions may lead us.”
“It is profound and full of wit and wisdom.”
“Esther, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s sister, is just as exciting and compelling a writer as her brother. Her short stories have the distinctive Singer style of charm, wit and darkness twisted together.”
“It is an extraorindary account of Jewish librarians, archivist, and scholars in Vilnius, risking their lives to save the knowledge of their communities during the Holocaust.”
“It convincingly highlights the role of myth-making, literature, and ideology in the creation of Jewish self-understanding.”
“It has both Baruch Spinoza and Hannah Arendt as major characters. It explores how refugees shape our culture, and how bridges can be built across time and culture to bring us together.”
“It beautifully explores the themes of finding connection and meaning in unexpected places. As a book it manages to be both fairy-tale like and emotionally realistic.”
“Anne’s voice feels more urgent than ever, revealing the inner world of a Jewish child living with antisemitism and showing how hatred is lived and felt by the young.”
“I would recommend the whole series of Jewish Lives. Pushed for time? Start with this book on Carole King, and then Sarah Bernhardt, Philip Roth and Maimonides.”