Jewish Literature

"We have entered the territory of concrete poetry here, where the extreme formality of the book's layout begins to shape content. The expressionistic and often elevated lyricism of Quads is held in a fine balance by the book's formal restraint, and Oulipo meets concrete poetry in the service of conceptual play. But there is also passionate protest, mostly against the inescapable crap of life!" - John Jenkins, CorditeChris Mansell has published over a dozen books of poetry and a collection of short fiction, has been translated into many languages, and won prizes for her work. She is known for her experimentalm and sometimes seriously playful approach in which she crosses boundaries but, like all true poets, stays true to her words. She gives engaging readings which bring audiences into the sounds of the poems. Chris Mansell lives in the beautiful Shoalhaven in New South Wales among the beaches and the cows, but travels frequently to cities to engage and perform there.

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Der jüdische Roman "Falk Nefts Heimkehr" erzählt von einem jungen jüdischen Offizier, der aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg zurückkehrt - gebrochen, heimatlos, auf der Suche nach Sinn. Während er durch das Frankfurter Ostend streift, begegnet er nicht nur seiner eigenen Schuld, sondern auch jenen Ostjuden, deren gelebte Frömmigkeit ihm den Weg zurück zur Tora öffnet. In dieser Erzählung verbinden sich Trauma und Neubeginn, Tradition und Aufbruch. Breuer zeigt, wie ein Mensch wieder zu sich findet, wenn er die alten Texte neu hört - und wie aus Fremdheit plötzlich Heimat werden kann.

Winner of the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Premio de la Critica in SpainConversation-starting and prize-winning international fiction: an extraordinary meditation on violence, conspiracy and the many complex afterlives of the Holocaust 'Audacious' Observer'Provocative' Times Literary Supplement'Extraordinary' Olivia LaingEduardo and his brother have been living in the US for three years when their parents send them back to Guatemala for the holidays. It is 1984 and their native country, in the midst of a violent civil war, feels newly alien to them - their Spanish faltering, already half-forgotten. Their grandfather collects the boys from the airport and drives them into the mountains, depositing them at what they're told is a Jewish summer camp.At the camp, the children meet a counsellor called Samuel Blum: a handsome young man with sky-blue eyes who knows about all kinds of things. He shows them how to make a survival shelter out of branches and leaves, and how to kindle a fire using a glass bottle. He sings songs with them and plays games. But he also trains them to march in rank, and salute, and dive for cover. He teaches them the Hebrew words for 'grenade' and 'soldier' and 'silence'.On the fourth day, everything changes. The boys are shaken from their beds at dawn. A terrifying figure, uniformed in black, looms over them, and beyond him is the sound of screaming outside. Eduardo looks into the stranger's face - it is Samuel Blum, but his sky-blue eyes look different now. In his hand he carries a club. Crawling down his left arm is a huge tarantula.Thought-provoking and powerfully ambivalent, Tarantula is an extraordinary meditation on the many complex afterlives of the Holocaust. It is a novel about individual and collective inheritance, individual and collective violence; about memory, trauma, connection and estrangement. It asks what it means to be a Jew in the long wake of the twentieth century, and how the past lives on in the present.

März 1945: Amerikanische Verbände haben Köln erreicht. Trotz der Durchhalteparolen aus Berlin ist der Widerstand gering, die Stadt wie ausgestorben. Kaum mehr 20.000 Menschen leben in den Trümmern. Doch die Amerikaner erobern nur einen Teil der zerstörten Metropole, denn der Rhein bildet wochenlang die Front. Unlängst wurde die Domstadt noch einmal schwer bombardiert. Ein abgeschossener Pilot stürzte dabei mit seinem Fallschirm mitten hinein ins Chaos - und wurde Opfer eines feigen Lynchmords. Nun soll der junge amerikanische Soldat Joe Salmon, eigentlich Joseph Salomon, ein Kölner Jude, der nach der 'Reichskristallnacht' mit knapper Not in die USA emigrieren konnte, den Fall klären. Joe sucht den Mörder oder die Mörderin - tatsächlich aber sucht er insgeheim noch zwei andere Menschen, die er einst in der Heimat zurücklassen musste: Jakub und Hilda, seinen besten Freund und die Frau, in die er hoffnungslos verliebt war. Auf verschlungenen Pfaden nähert Joe sich der Lösung des Falls und der eigenen Vergangenheit und begegnet dabei historischen Persönlichkeiten, die im März 1945 in Köln gelebt und gewirkt haben: George Orwell, Konrad Adenauer, Hans Habe, Irmgard Keun.

A tragicomic portrait of one man's unravelling in an absurd, twisted world, Howl is the propulsive new novel from Booker-Prize winner Howard Jacobson.'A howling comic masterpiece' Patrick Marber'Boils with fury and fizzes with life' Jonathan FreedlandIn the aftermath of October 7, Ferdinand Draxler walks the streets of London in despair. Everything has changed - the sights, the sound, the spirit. He too is not who he was. Is he at the crossroads of history or is it just a bend in the cul-de-sac of his own gloomy nature?The son of a Holocaust survivor who accuses him of cowardice and the father of a daughter who sees him as complicit in genocide, Draxler fixates on bad news. He shouts at the television. He carries his own tin of paint to cover up graffiti. The staffroom at the primary school of which he is headmaster has become a battlefield of inflamed opinion he does nothing to quiet.His wife Charmian is a beacon of calm but even she isn't sure she can save Ferdie from himself. 'Don't worry about me,' he tells her. 'I don't have what it takes to go mad.''He just gets better and better' Giles Coren

To the untrained eye, the rabbi is far from desirable. He is lofty and unkempt, he is ageing and his congregation is ever diminishing. But to one man, he is the object of obsession.Our narrator adores the rabbi and worships the universe between his legs. But so too does he bristle at being relegated to the peripheries of the rabbi's life. When they're apart, he manically contemplates every element of the rabbi's being: his absent husband; his first (and only) wife and child, both now deceased; his unstable, yet alluring, adopted son. Until, in a bid to help sustain their relationship, our narrator embarks on an increasingly urgent quest to better understand his mercurial lover - one which threatens to upturn the lives of both men.Lavish and lascivious, My Lover, the Rabbi is an exuberant exploration of devotion and desire, as well as a careening Catherine wheel of a novel about queer family-making, one which is attuned to the mysterious constellations and patterns that shape our lives.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!"A mesmerizing tale of love, female friendship, and heroism." —Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling authorA Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam JenoffLondon, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before, when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe—and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise discovers the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison—and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France. Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever… Read these other sweeping epics from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff: - Code Name Sapphire - The Lost Girls of Paris - The Woman with the Blue Star - The Orphan’s Tale - The Ambassador’s Daughter - The Diplomat’s Wife - The Kommandant’s Girl - The Winter Guest

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE DARK ROOM AND A BOY IN WINTER'A complex, intelligent, deeply compassionate novel about the unglamorous aftermath of war . . . A brilliant piece of story-telling' ANDREW MILLER, author of THE LAND IN WINTER'This fine novel investigates the fate of displaced people in the hazardous, dirty backwash of the second world war' GUARDIAN'Marvellous . . . a wide-ranging novel that beautifully balances the tumultuous reach of history with the everyday concerns of ordinary people' DAILY MAIL'Powerful . . . Seiffert's writing beautifully captures this devastating moment of history' SPECTATORTo be truly alive means having to make choices. To be truly alive is also, quite simply, to love.Northern Germany, 1945. Dead of night and dead of winter, a boy hears soldiers and sees strangers - forced labourers - fleeing across the heathland by his small town: shawls and skirts in the snowfall. The end days are close, war brings risk and chance, and Benno is witness to something he barely understands.Peace brings more soldiers - but English this time - and Red Cross staff officers. Ruth, on her first posting from London, is given charge of a refugee camp on the heathland, crowded with former forced labourers. As ever more keep arriving, she hears whispers, rumours of dark secrets about that snowy night.The townspeople close ranks, shutting their mouths and minds to the winter's events, but the town children are curious about the refugees on their doorstep, and Benno can't carry his secret alone.'Rachel Seiffert's outstanding novel is full of feeling but without sentimentality' JUDGES OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR FICTION'This entire novel reverberates in ways that only haunt the reader more and more deeply, long after its last page' PAUL HARDING, author of THIS OTHER EDEN'She has brought to life a complex interaction between survivors on both sides with humanity and compassion' LINDA GRANT, author of THE STORY OF THE FOREST'The patron saint of this gripping novel is Bertolt Brecht. This is a fascinating novel by one of our very best writers' JEWISH CHRONICLE'Reminds us that even after that appalling war, people did recover and a new world was made. These are messages we need now' ALICE JOLLY, DAILY MAIL

Más allá de la pasión, Agua viva apunta al centro de la vida y desafía a la muerte con su defensa de la alegría. «En Agua viva, especie de larga misiva a un destinatario desconocido, Clarice Lispector deja que el pensamiento divague sin freno, evocando la fuerza del momento, la escritura, la pintura o su propia soledad. El resultado es un libro de vigor singular'. -Le Monde ¿Dónde están los límites del lenguaje? Agua viva es una vivencia sobre esos límites. Vaga epístola a un destinatario mudo, esta obra supera en todo momento las fronteras de esa amplia familia de las cartas de desamor a la que, en parte, pertenece. Desafiando los límites y sin concesiones a la convención, este libro inaugura un espacio compartido entre quien escribe y quien lee. Una obra fundamental dentro de la producción literaria de la autora, así como de la literatura en lengua portuguesa. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Beyond passion, Living Water aims at the heart of life and defies death in its defense of joy. "In Living Water, a sort of long letter to an unknown addressee, Clarice Lispector lets the mind run free, evoking the strength of the moment, writing, painting, or her own loneliness. The result is a book of singular vigor." --Le Monde Where are the limits of language? Living Water is a way to experience those very limits. A vague epistle to a mute recipient, this work constantly surpasses the borders of that ample family of heartbreak letters it partly belongs to. This book, defying the limits and conventions uncompromisingly, opens a shared space for the one who writes and the one who reads. A fundamental piece in the author's literary production, as well as in literature written in the Portuguese language.

Mit den Urnen ihrer Mutter und Großmutter im Kofferraum reist Ruth nach Litauen, um sie in der lang verlorenen Heimat der Familie beizusetzen. Auf der endlosen Fahrt erinnert sie sich an ihre Kindheit nach der Emigration in den siebziger Jahren: Erst in Israel und später in West-Berlin beginnt ein neues Leben, geprägt von Sprachschwierigkeiten, Überlebenskunst und den Hürden der Bürokratie. Die Mutter, einst gefeierte Sängerin, ringt mit Depressionen; Ruth wünscht sich Normalität - und findet Halt in Musik und Sport. IMMERGRÜN ist ein Roman über Exil, Neubeginn und die leise Kraft der Kunst im Schatten großer Umbrüche.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is brilliantly reinvented by Howard Jacobson, in his merciless, sharp and funny story of revenge, justice and antisemitism. With an absent wife and a daughter going off the rails, wealthy art collector and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch is in need of someone to talk to. So when he meets Shylock at a cemetery in Cheshire's Golden Triangle, he invites him back to his house. It's the beginning of a remarkable friendship...Howard Jacobson's version of The Merchant of Venice bends time to its own advantage as it asks what it means to be a father, a Jew and a merciful human being in the modern world.'Inspired...It does what any good literary subversion should do: deepens and enhances one's appreciation of the original' Guardian'Jacobson's prose has the sort of elastic precision you only get from a writer who is truly in command... There's also deep and sincere soul-searching going on here' IndependentSHAKESPEARE RETOLD: Time travel. Zombies. Power-hungry media moguls. This is Shakespeare as you've never seen him before: nine iconic plays transformed by the best novelists of our time, with covers by Michael Craig-Martin.

A new translation of the classic tales based on Eastern European folk tradition and rabbinical wisdom, offering inspiration and advice to readers of all faiths for over 200 years "A treasure... A fascinating introduction to one of the great Jewish writers of the late 18th century" -- The Jewish Chronicle Nachman of Bratslav, descended from the founder of the Hasidic movement, carved a singular path as a Jewish spiritual leader. Towards the end of his life, he suffered the devastating loss of his young son, which prompted him to turn increasingly inward and seek consolation from the world of the creative imagination. The result was the 13 fascinating, unique tales in this collection. A landmark in Jewish literature, they depict a surreal world where princes bleed jewels and princesses sail the seas in men's clothing, leaving destruction in their wake. As each tale unfolds, certainties are undermined and images of enigmatic beauty emerge. In a sparkling new translation, Nachman's skewed fables reveal strange and profound depths, prefiguring the modern sensibilities of Gogol and Kafka. Drawing equally on Yiddish folk stories and their author's profound spiritual knowledge, tales such as "Of the Loss of a Princess", "Of a Humble King's Portrait" and "Of a Wise Man and a Simpleton" still entrance with their originality, profundity, and verve. These mesmerizing tales have touched readers beyond the boundaries of faith, time and place since they were first written down, and these fresh translations offer a renewed sense of their psychological wisdom and narrative delight.

An Instant New York Times BestsellerBeloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with his most important novel to date, an unforgettable work of World War II historical fiction about truth and lies set during the Holocaust.Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis has never told a lie. When the Nazis invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is persuade his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading "north," where new jobs and safety await. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy reassures passengers on the station platform every day.But when the final train is loaded, Nico sees his family being herded into a boxcar. Only then does he discover that he has helped send them—and everyone he knows and loves—to their doom at Auschwitz.Nico escapes—but he never tells the truth again.In The Little Liar, a gripping family saga, Mitch Albom examines the human repercussions of deception by interweaving the stories of Nico, who yearns for forgiveness; his older brother, Sebastian, who vows revenge against him; Fannie, the girl who must choose between them; and Udo Graf, the Nazi officer who forever changed their lives with his lies.Through the war years, the concentration camps, and the decades that follow, Albom reveals the consequences of each person's honesty and dishonesty in this powerful story of survival, bringing them back to where it all started in a staggering climax worthy of the best of Albom's internationally embraced stories.

Deggenfeld im Jahre 1338. Die junge Miriam, eine ausgebildete Medica und Jüdin, stürzt in ein Netz aus Intrigen und Gefahr, als sie zufällig eine Verschwörung belauscht. Im Schatten wachsender Spannungen und angesichts einer drohenden Attacke auf die jüdische Gemeinde, muss Miriam Mut, Klugheit und Tatkraft beweisen, um ihre Liebsten zu beschützen und Gerechtigkeit zu suchen. Doch das ist einfacher gesagt als getan, denn Miriams eigenes Leben und dass ihrer Tochter Rebecca ist, eng mit der Verschwörung verknüpft. Und auch wenn Miriam als Ärztin einiges an Ansehen genießt und so an manche Information gelangt, bleiben ihr als Frau und Jüdin viele Privilegien verwehrt.

Kann es Hoffnung geben, wenn die Welt in Trümmern liegt?Mitte der Vierzigerjahre rückt die Front immer näher an Deutschland heran. Während ihr Mann in Schlesien ums Überleben kämpft, versucht Klara zwischen Bombennächten, Hunger und Angst ihren vier Kindern eine schöne Kindheit zu bereiten - doch die Schuldgefühle, das jüdische Mädchen Tolla weggegeben zu haben, wüten in ihr. Als der Krieg vorbei ist und Europa in Trümmern liegt, muss Klara sich fragen, was sie retten konnte von ihren Träumen und Hoffnungen. Über fünfzig Jahre später: Nach dem Tod ihrer Großmutter entdeckt Isabell einen Karton mit Tonbändern, auf die Klara ihre Lebenserinnerungen gesprochen hat. Mit ihrer Tochter auf dem Schoß lauscht Isabell der vertrauten Stimme und begibt sich auf eine emotionale Zeitreise. Zu spät erkennt sie, wer ihre oft unnahbar wirkende Großmutter wirklich war - und fragt sich: Was hätte ich getan, um die zu schützen, die ich liebe? Inspiriert durch ihre eigene Familiengeschichte, erzählt Alexa Hennig von Lange mitreißend, klug und empathisch von dem Versuch, menschlich zu bleiben - auch in dunkelsten Zeiten -, und davon, wie die Vergangenheit uns prägt.

Ein großer Roman nach der wahren Geschichte einer Frau, die für ihren Glauben an das Gute bis zum Letzten gingAmsterdam, 1940: Es herrscht Krieg, und Hannie Schaft, eine Jurastudentin voller Ideale, schließt sich dem Widerstand an. Bald entdeckt sie ihre gefährlichste Waffe: ihr Frausein. Getarnt von Schönheit und Jugend kommt sie jenen Männern nahe, die so viel Unheil stiften - und tötet sie. Als 'das Mädchen mit den roten Haaren' wird sie die meistgesuchte Frau Hollands. Dann jedoch beginnt sie, Gefühle für den Widerstandskämpfer Jan zu entwickeln, mit verheerenden Konsequenzen ...'Mitreißend erzählt der Roman die wahre Geschichte von Hannie Schaft, die für ihre jüdischen Freundinnen ihr Leben aufs Spiel setzt.' FREUNDIN

Huub Oosterhuis (1933-2023) war Dichter und Theologe, Kulturpolitiker und Seelsorger. Seine Gedanken, Gedichte und Lieder inspirieren auch heute Menschen weit über die Konfessionsgrenzen der Kirchen hinaus. Cornelis Kok, zu Lebzeiten einer seiner vertrautesten Freunde und Mitarbeiter, hat aus beliebten, aber auch zum Teil erstmals auf Deutsch veröffentlichten Texten ein Lese- und Lebensbuch zusammengestellt, einen Begleiter durch das ganze Jahr. In jedem Tagestext, ob Prosa oder Gedicht, ringt Huub Oosterhuis darum, was es heute bedeutet, verantwortungsvoll und erfüllt als Mensch auf dieser Erde zu leben. 'Die biblische Geschichte ist eine Gegengeschichte. Sie hat ein anderes menschliches Leben vor Augen, ist nicht in den Wolken angesiedelt, sondern in Menschen. Ein Leben von Menschen, die einander Nächste sind, die aneinandergrenzen, Haus an Haus, Haut an Haut. Menschen, die einander nicht bekämpfen und nicht überwältigen, sondern sich bemühen, einander zu suchen und zu dulden.'