Booking for the 85+ events during Jewish Book Week opened on Wednesday 9th January. Visit the website - http://jewishbookweek.com - for more details. I'll be coming along to three events taking place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th March. Hopefully I'll do some live tweeting while I'm there and also write a summary post on Off-the-Shelf Books afterwards.
So which Jewish-themed books have I read so far?
Bitter by Francesca Jakobi
Published by W&N in October 2018
Bitter by Francesca Jakobi was the first Jewish-themed book I read with Jewish Book Week in mind. At 12 pm on Sunday 3rd March 2019, at Kings Place, London, Francesca will be talking about the perils and pitfalls of fictionalising a family story. Bitter was inspired by her grandmother, who was sued for divorce in the 1940s.
Publisher's description
It's 1969, and while the summer of love lingers in London, Gilda is consumed by the mistakes of her past. She walked out on her beloved son Reuben when he was just a boy and fears he will never forgive her. When Reuben marries Alice, he seems transformed by love - a love Gilda has craved his entire adult life. What does his new wife have that she doesn't? And how far will she go to find out? It's an obsession that will bring shocking truths about the past to light . . .
The Emperor of Shoes by Spencer Wise
Published in hardback by No Exit Press in July 2018 - paperback being published in April 2019
Publisher's description
Alex Cohen, a twenty-six-year-old Jewish Bostonian, is living in southern China, where his father runs their family-owned shoe factory. Alex reluctantly assumes the helm of the company, but as he explores the plant's vast floors and assembly lines, he comes to a grim realisation: employees are exploited, regulatory systems are corrupt and Alex's own father is engaging in bribes to protect the bottom line. When Alex meets a seamstress named Ivy, his sympathies begin to shift. She is an embedded organiser of a pro-democratic Chinese party, secretly sowing dissonance among her fellow labourers. Will Alex remain loyal to his father and his heritage? Or will the sparks of revolution ignite?
The Emperor of Shoes is a fascinating blend of Jewish and Chinese cultures, with a focus on contemporary social and political themes at a time of vast change and revolution. It's also a love story and an exploration of difficult father-son relationships, portrayed through emotional scenes and Yiddish humour. Vivid descriptions transported me to contemporary Southern China. I felt as though I was there alongside the characters, seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling the contrast between the hustle and bustle of city life and the tranquility of the rural areas. This book is a thought-provoking exploration of the working conditions in Chinese factories, communism versus capitalism and Jewish identity.
Invisible City & Run You Down by Julia Dahl
Invisible City was published by Faber on 31 July 2018.
Run You Down was published by Faber on 1 January 2019.
Publisher's description: Invisible City
Fresh out of journalism school, Rebekah Roberts is working for the New York Tribune, trying to make a name for herself. Assigned a story about the murder of a woman in Brooklyn, Rebekah finds a case from inside a closed, secretive Hasidic Jewish community - the same Brooklyn neighbourhood her estranged mother was brought up in.
Shocked to discover that the victim is set to be buried without an autopsy, Rebekah knows there is a story to uncover, but getting to the truth won't be easy - in the cloistered world her mother rebelled against, it's clear she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep, most of all from an outsider.
Aviva Kagan was just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida. A few months later she was pregnant, engaged to be married and trapped in a life she never imagined. So, shortly after the birth of her daughter she disappeared.
Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from, NYC tabloid reporter Rebekah Roberts, wants nothing to do with her. But when a man from the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Roseville, NY contacts Rebekah about his young wife's mysterious death, she is drawn into Aviva's old world, and a hidden culture full of dangerous secrets and frustrations.
My verdict
Invisible City and Run You Down are the first two books in a crime fiction series featuring reporter Rebekah Roberts. I read Invisible City in the summer and Run You Down in the last few weeks. Both books are set within the Ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jewish communities in Brooklyn, where Rebekah freelances for the local tabloid newspaper. Rebekah's mother Aviva was brought up within this community, rebelled, became pregnant and then returned to them (leaving Rebekah with her father). This helps to introduce religious Jewish culture, as Rebekah learns more about the traditions and her own heritage during her investigations. Both books are thought provoking, covering social issues and contemporary themes, including diversity, race and religion, gun control, white supremacy, acceptance, racism and anti-semitism. They are also bittersweet stories of family relationships and self-discovery.
So that's it for now! But I have many more Jewish-themed books on my list and will reading (and reviewing) them over the coming year. So do pop back to Off-the-Shelf Books for more updates!
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