RECOMMENDED READS: NEW & AWARD-WINNING JEWISH FICTION
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Random House, 2019) Divorcing his hostile wife when he concludes he could find genuine happiness elsewhere, a doctor is astonished when his ex abruptly disappears, making him unable to move on without acknowledging painful truths about his marriage. 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD: DEBUT FICTION FINALIST AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONG LIST
Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland (Simon & Schuster, 2020) Renting out their 1934 Atlantic City home and crowding into the apartment above their bakery with their daughters and a mysterious émigré, a family constructs an elaborate web of lies to cover up a devastating tragedy.
The Third Daughter by Talia Carner (William Morrow, 2019) A fictionalized account of a little-known piece of history: the sex trafficking of young Jewish women from Russia to South America in the late 19th century. 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD: BOOK CLUB FINALIST
House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon (Atria Books, 2020) Returning to his birthplace in Amsterdam, a successful writer uncovers heartbreaking secrets about his Dutch-Jewish family’s wartime experiences.
On Division by Goldie Goldbloom (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2019) Anticipating the birth of her first great-grandchild, a 57-year-old Chasidic woman in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, feels exposed and ashamed by a late-in-life pregnancy that slowly separates her from her community. 2020 ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES FICTION AWARD WINNER
The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross (Harpervia, 2020) A tiny Jewish shtetl that has peacefully escaped the devastations of the Holocaust and Cold War is wrenchingly forced into the 21st century by a marriage dispute that spins out of control.
The Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (Little Brown, 2019) Desperate to escape a near-invisible life, a Tel Aviv ice cream shop worker tells a terrible lie that renders her the center of public and media attention, before she is blackmailed by a neighbor who knows the truth. JQ WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE: 2020 SHORT LIST
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (Simon & Schuster, 2019) Sent away to Paris in 1941, a young Jewish girl bonds with her protective mystical golem while her friend, a rabbi’s daughter, rises to become a defender of their people. 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD: BOOK CLUB WINNER
The Orchard by David Hopen (Ecco Press, 2020) Reinventing himself upon moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, a student at an Orthodox Jewish high school is welcomed into a circle of popular students whose faith is unconventionally tested by their charismatic rabbi. 1 Fly Already: Stories by Etgar Keret (Riverhead Books, 2019) A collection of subversive, hilarious, and heart-breaking short stories by the award-winning Israeli author. 2019 SAPIR PRIZE FOR LITERATURE AND NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD: FICTION WINNER
To Be a Man: Stories by Nicole Krauss (HarperCollins, 2020) A dazzling collection of short fiction that explores what it means to be in a couple, and to be a man and a woman in that perplexing relationship and beyond.
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas (Spiegel & Grau, 2018) College student Joseph receives a mysterious package that ignites a historical investigation that exposes incredible aspects of his family history and its ties to the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo. 2019 HADASSAH MAGAZINE RIBALOW PRIZE, SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE, ALA SOPHIE BRODY MEDAL, AND 2018 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD: FICTION WINNER
Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Random House, 2020) Two fathers, a Palestinian and an Israeli, navigate the physical and emotional checkpoints of their conflicted world before devastating losses compel them to work together to use their grief as a weapon for peace. 2020 BOOKER PRIZE: LONG LIST
The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson (Park Row, 2020) A family's discovery of a priceless inheritance leads them on a pursuit for the truth that transforms their lives in unexpected ways.
The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer (Knopf, 2019) Presents a fictionalized account of American journalist Varian Fry's 1940 trip to France to save the lives and work of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust. 2020 ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES FICTION HONOR AWARD
The Gown by Jennifer Robson (William Morrow, 2018) Yearning to know more about her grandmother's past, Heather travels to London to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers, a legacy from her late grandmother that closely resembles the motifs on Queen Elizabeth II's wedding gown. 2019 CANADIAN JEWISH LITERARY AWARD: FICTION
The Book of V. by Anna Solomon (Henry Holt, 2020) Three stories intertwine - Queen Esther, a senator's wife in the 1970s, and a Brooklyn mother in 2016 – to trace surprising and moving parallels that explore the enduring women's realities that have not changed for millennia.
2 MORE AWARD WINNERS: Where to Find Me by Alba Arikha (Bloomsbury, 2019) *JQ Wingate Literary Prize: Long List* Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis (HarperCollins, 2019 eBook only) *National Jewish Book Award: Fiction Finalist* The Guest Book by Sarah Blake (Flatiron Books, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Book Club Finalist* Naamah by Sarah Blake (Riverhead Books, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Debut Fiction Award* The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung (Ecco, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Fiction Finalist* The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton (Harper Perennial 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Book Club Finalist* Strangers and Cousins by Leah Hager Cohen (Riverhead Books, 2019) *Sophie Brody Medal: Honorable Mention* Nick Bones Underground by Phil M. Cohen (Koehler Books, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Debut Fiction Finalist* Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander (Knopf, 2019) *JQ Wingate Literary Prize: Long List* Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman (Grand Central, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Debut Fiction Finalist* Live A Little by Howard Jacobson (Hogarth Press, 2019) *JQ Wingate Literary Prize: Short List* Evacuation by Raphael Jerusalmy (Text Publishing, 2019) *JQ Wingate Literary Prize: Short List* Love Is a Rebellious Bird by Elayne Klasson (She Writes Press, 2019) *National Jewish Book Award: Debut Fiction Award* A Weekend in New York by Benjamin Markovits (Faber & Faber, 2019) *JQ Wingate Literary Prize: Long List* Maggie Brown & Others: Stories by Peter Orner (Little Brown, 2019) *Edward Lewis Wallant Award*
NEW HEBREW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION: The Brothers of Auschwitz by Malka Adler (HarperCollins Publishers, 2020) A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon (Pegasus Crime, 2020) To the Edge of Sorrow by Aharon Appelfeld (Schocken Books, 2020) The Drive by Yair Assulin (New Vessel Press, 2020) The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali (Open Letter, 2020) Track Changes by Sayed Kashua (Grove Press, 2020) Three by D.A. Mishani (Europa Editions, 2020) The Last Interview by Eshkol Nevo (Other Press, 2020) The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid (Restless Books, 2020) The Tunnel by A.B. Yehoshua (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)
3 MORE NEW BOOKS: The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams (Harper, 2020) Eli’s Promise by Ronald Balson (St. Martin’s, 2020) Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg (Back Bay Books, 2020) The Paris Children by Gloria Goldreich (Sourcebooks, 2020) The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel (Gallery Books, 2020) Exile Music by Jennifer Steil (Viking, 2020)
COMING IN 2021: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder (Simon & Schuster, 2/2021) The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles (Atria, 2/2021) Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin (Pantheon, 6/2021) How to Find Your Way in the Dark by Derek Miller (Houghton Mifflin, 6/2021) Antiquities by Cynthia Ozick (Knopf, 4/2021) The Vixen by Francine Prose (HarperCollins, 6/2021) The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner (Redhook, 4/2021) City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks (Harper 2/2021) The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker (HarperCollins, 6/2021)
RACHEL KAMIN, DIRECTOR, THE JOSEPH AND MAE GRAY CULTURAL & LEARNING CENTER NORTH SUBURBAN SYNAGOGUE BETH EL • HIGHLAND PARK, IL 847/926-7902 • [email protected] NOVEMBER 2020
4