Jewish Book Week 2020

This year, Jewish Book Week takes place from 29 February to 8 March 2020 - at King’s Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG and JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET. 

Yet again, there are plenty of fabulous events and live performances on offer.

Great events
For nine days, Jewish Book Week brings together nearly 200 multi-award winning writers from the worlds of history, journalism, philosophy, science, art, music, poetry and fiction in a celebration of ideas. Themes range from memory to espionage to what it means to be a 'Jewish writer'.

The 2020 line-up includes:

• Emma Barnett
• Tom Bower
• Camilla Cavendish
• Gavin Esler
• Jonathan Freedland
• Nicci Gerrard
• Adam Gopnik
• Howard Jacobson
• Rachel Johnson
• Norman Lebrecht
• Sue MacGregor
• Douglas Murray
• Melanie Phillips
• Philippe Sands
• Marcus du Sautoy
• Simon Schama
• Tom Segev
• Elif Shafak
• Martin Rees
• Andrew Robinson
• Edmund de Waal
• A.B. Yehoshua

Live performance is a big feature – and this year, highlights include Rob ‘Judge’ Rinder and singer Claire Martin with music of Hollywood’s golden age, and Simon Schama performing his Wordy: The Show.

Tickets are now available! To see the full programme and book your tickets, click here.

First-ever family day

Jewish Book Week's first-ever 'Family Day' is on Sunday 2nd February, when Murderous Math's Kjartan Poskitt celebrates his hero The Great Houdini: The World's Most Amazing Escape Artist and Michael Rosen discusses The Missing: The True Story of My Family in WWII, his new book on speaking with children about the Holocaust.

Schools programme

Jewish Book Week is running a speakers programme  for schools in the London area. Many of the authors appearing at Jewish Book Week generously donate their time to speak in schools in the Greater London area about topics ranging from Politics to Physics, supporting Jewish Book Week's goal of encouraging conversations and learning within the Jewish community and beyond.

For more information, visit the Jewish Book Week website here.

Follow the #JBW20 hashtag on social media and the Jewish Book Week Twitter account - @JewishBookWeek

My Jewish-themed Reads Part 3 - #JBW2019

This year, I'm an official book blog partner of Jewish Book Week in London (2 to 10 March 2019). There are still tickets available for various events - but with only a few days left to go before Jewish Book Week begins, you’ll need to be quick! Visit the website - http://jewishbookweek.com - for more details.

If you follow me on Twitter or follow Off-the-Shelf Books, you'll know that I'm writing Jewish-themed crime fiction and I've made it my mission to read more Jewish-themed books this year. While I won't read all of the books on my list before next weekend(!), I will still be reading them throughout 2019. Here are three more Jewish-themed reads - more to come soon!

To Kill the Truth by Sam Bourne 
Published in hardback by Quercus on 21 February 2019

Jonathan Freedland (Sam Bourne) will be speaking at Jewish Book Week on 10 March 2019, at 5 pm at Kings Place, London.

Publisher's description

Someone is trying to destroy the evidence of history's greatest crimes.

Academics and Holocaust survivors dead in mysterious circumstances. Museums and libraries burning. Digital records and irreplaceable proofs, lost for ever.

Former White House operative Maggie Costello has sworn off politics. But when the Governor of Virginia seeks her help to stop the lethal spiral of killings, she knows that this is bigger than any political game. 

As Black Lives Matter protestors clash with slavery deniers, America is on a knife-edge and time is running out. This deadly conspiracy could ignite a new Civil War - but who stands to gain most from the chaos?

My verdict
To Kill the Truth is certainly a thriller of the modern world. With clear roots in the David Irving trial, the book is filled with twists and turns, politics, technological warfare, fake news, racism/antisemitism and holocaust denial. It's a follow up to last year's To Kill the President (which I admit I haven't read), with a focus on pace and thrills to provide a high-octane rollercoaster read.

To book a ticket for Jonathan Freedland (Sam Bourne)'s Jewish Book Week event, click here.



The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl
Published in paperback by Orenda Books in March 2019 (ebook out now)

Publisher's description

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

My verdict
The Courier is a literary spy thriller, perfect for John Le Carré fans, and a very welcome addition to the Nordic Noir genre ... So much tension bubbles away under the surface. But this is far more than just a thriller and a murder mystery. It's also a heartbreaking read, as Ester learns more about what happened to her family and her childhood friend. The ending brought tears to my eyes but also a strong sense of resolution. To read my full review, click here.


The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom by Beth Miller
Published by Bookouture in March 2019

Publisher's description: 

She followed her heart to change her life, but she didn’t realise how much she left behind…

Eliza Bloom has a list of rules: long, blue skirt on Thursdays, dinner with mother on Fridays, and never give your heart away to the wrong person. Nothing is out of place in her ordered life…

Then she met someone who she was never supposed to speak to. And he introduced her to a whole world of new lists:
New foods to try – oysters and sushi
Great movies to watch – Bambi and Some Like It Hot 
Things I love about Eliza Bloom

Eliza left everything she knew behind for him, but sometimes love just isn’t enough. Especially when he opens a hidden shoebox and starts asking a lot of questions about her past life. As the walls Eliza has carefully constructed threaten to come crashing down, will she find a way to keep hold of everyone she loves, and maybe, just maybe, bring the two sides of her heart together at last?

My verdict
The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is a story of identity, love, choice and family. Eliza (or Aliza) Bloom runs away from her religious Jewish life to marry Alex, a non-Jewish man. Years later, her teenage daughter unlocks family secrets to reveal that moving on (and leaving the past behind) wasn't so straightforward after all. Eliza breaks the taboos and traditions of her religion to try new foods and new experiences, determined to please her new husband (who wants to introduce her to the 'wonders' of the 'real world'). This provides a good introduction to Orthodox Judaism (especially the more religious communities) for those who know little about it. It isn't always easy reading though, as Eliza struggles with her new identity and is torn between her old life (love for Judaism and her family, especially her grandfather, Zaida) and her new life (love for Alex and the excitement he provides). Some of her 'new experiences' did make me cringe, having been brought up with many of the Jewish traditions myself. This is an easy read, with a well-rounded mix of laughs, sensitivity and sadness. The book also raises interesting questions though, such as 'Is the grass always greener?' and 'Is it wise to make spur-of-the-moment life-changing decisions without knowing the full facts?'


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 months. So do pop back to Off-the-Shelf Books for more updates!

My Jewish-themed Reads Part 2 - #JBW2019

Here are three more Jewish-themed reads. This year, I'm an official book blog partner of Jewish Book Week in London (2 to 10 March 2019), so I've made it my mission to read more Jewish-themed books throughout 2019.

If you haven't yet booked for Jewish Book Week, tickets are still available. Visit the website - http://jewishbookweek.com - for more details.

The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es
Published by Penguin in paperback in January 2019

The Cut Out Girl won the Costa Book of the Year 2018 award. Bart Van Es will be speaking at Jewish Book Week on 10 March 2019, at 11 am at Kings Place, London.

Publisher's description

Little Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why.

His account of tracing Lien and telling her story is a searing exploration of two lives and two families. It is a story about love and misunderstanding and about the ways that our most painful experiences - so crucial in defining us - can also be redefined.

My verdict

The Cut Out Girl is a moving story of family and childhood - a book of loss, love, hope and remembrance. Young Lien was 'cut out' of her family and raised by foster parents, in the hope that she would survive the war and the horrors of the Holocaust. This is a mixture of memoir and social and political history, told through the eyes of author Bart Van Es, grandson of Lien's foster parents and now an Oxford professor. It's an intimate look at a young Jewish girl's time in hiding, but also a deeper look at the Nazi occupation of Holland. The factual content is seamlessly woven into the narrative, as chapters switch between Bart Van Es's research in the present day and Lien's story in the past. The book is harrowing and upsetting in places, but needs to be read - just as it needed to be written. A testament not only to the resilience of young Lien, but also to the Dutch families who risked their lives to hide her and so many other Jewish people. 

To book a ticket for Bart Van Es's Jewish Book Week event, click here.


The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner 
Published in hardback by Orbit in September 2018 - paperback being published in June 2019

Publisher's description

In a remote village surrounded by forests on the border of Moldova and Ukraine, sisters Liba and Laya have been raised on the honeyed scent of their Mami's babka and the low rumble of their Tati's prayers. But when a troupe of mysterious men arrives, Laya falls under their spell - despite their mother's warning to be wary of strangers. And this is not the only danger lurking in the woods.

As dark forces close in on their small village, Liba and Laya discover a family secret passed down through generations. Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realise the old fairy tales are true . . . and could save them all.

My verdict
I was mesmerised by The Sisters of the Winter Wood. It's a fantasy mix, twining together Jewish traditions with Russian folklore and fairytales (based on the Goblin Market, a poem written in the 19th century). This enchanting coming-of-age novel is filled with lyrical prose - a story of forbidden love, family secrets and a window into a hidden world. It's a cross between YA and adult fiction - some of the chapters (those by Laya) are written in verse and you have to enjoy magical realism. I loved it, as I've been seeking Jewish-themed reads that are 'different' - and this one certainly stands out from the crowd!


Raising Sparks by Ariel Kahn
Published by Bluemoose Books in July 2018

Ariel Kahn will be speaking at Jewish Book Week on 3 March 2019, at 6.30 pm at Kings Place, London.

Publisher's description: 

I've actually decided not to include the publisher's description that I found on Amazon UK, as this is more of a synopsis of the book rather than a blurb and I don't want to give everything away here. But obviously you can read this description for yourself on Amazon! But instead, here's my own summary: When sixteen-year-old Malka finds Russian immigrant Moshe (one of her father's students) studying the forbidden Kabbalistic texts, she uncovers her own mystical gifts. Malta runs away from the family home in Jerusalem, and her ultra-orthodox lifestyle, to embark on a journey of self-discovery, filled with danger, revelations and ultimately love.

My verdict
You can't get much more Jewish themed than Raising Sparks, which opens with a Friday afternoon scene in which a Jewish family are preparing for the Sabbath (Shabbat). This novel is set in modern Israel, with its array of different religions and cultures trying (and sometimes struggling) to exist together, and the difficulties experienced by modern ultra-orthodox Jewish families as the world around them changes. Insights into Kabbalah, and its background, are woven into the plot, so there's a lot to take in. The book also celebrates Jewish symbolism and culture (culinary delights and social experiences, not just the religion itself). Raising Sparks is warm and touching, with some powerful and moving scenes and rich, descriptive prose that paints vivid imagery. It raises many questions about coincidence, curiosity, human nature and society, and has the potential to prompt significant discussion!

To book a ticket for Ariel Kahn's Jewish Book Week event, click here.

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 months. So do pop back to Off-the-Shelf Books for more updates!

My Jewish-themed Reads Part 1 - #JBW2019

This year, I'm an official book blog partner of Jewish Book Week in London (2 to 10 March 2019), so I've made it my mission to read more Jewish-themed books throughout 2019.

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 . . .

My verdict

This is a bittersweet character-led tale of a mother's obsessive love for her son and her resulting jealousy for her new daughter-in-law. It's beautifully written and emotionally tense, with poignant insights into Jewish family life and the period between the Second World War and the late 1960s. Filled with secrets from the past, the story manages to be both sinister and moving at the same time. Gilda's acerbic voice got right under my skin, eventually worming its way into my heart, as understanding her past helped me to understand her present. The book chilled me, gripped me and entertained me - an unforgettable character and story.

To book a ticket for Francesca's Jewish Book Week event, click here.

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?

My verdict
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.

Publisher's description: Run You Down

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!

Jewish Book Week 2019

Next year, Jewish Book Week takes place from 2nd to 10th March 2019. I'm now a official blog partner, so expect lots of 'Jewish book-related tweets' from me over the coming months, with some posts on Off-the-Shelf Books too.

As many of you will know, I'm writing Jewish-themed crime fiction. So when Jewish Book Week contacted me (following my recent post on Chanukah - click here), I was very excited to get involved.

Be an early bird!
To celebrate Chanukah, Jewish Book Week has put 12 very special events from the 2019 programme at Kings Place, London, on sale A MONTH EARLY, including Elif Safak, Michael Rosen, Francesca Simon, Tracy Chevalier and many more. You can book your tickets here!!!


What makes a novel 'Jewish'?
Jewish non-fiction is easier to define, but what about novels? This is a question I've been asking myself over the last couple of days. What defines a novel as a 'Jewish book'? Is it ...

• A Jewish author?
• Jewish characters?
• Jewish setting?
• Holocaust theme?

Or, for you, maybe it's something else? Jewish Book Week would love to hear your thoughts.

Follow the #greatjewishbooks hashtag!
The Jewish Book Week twitter account is on the search for great Jewish books - creating the ultimate Jewish reading list! From now until Jewish Book Week 2019 (#JBW19), Jewish Book Week wants to know your recommendations - fiction and non-fiction. Share your thoughts and a photo with the  #greatjewishbooks hashtag and the Jewish Book Week twitter account (@JewishBookWeek) will RT for you!

My own search
I'm now on the search for more 'Jewish' novels to read over the coming months (time permitting). Most genres welcome. Since I tweeted yesterday, I've had an amazing response, with lots of recommendations - I already have 17 books on my list! I can't guarantee I will read everything in time for Jewish Book Week in March (as I still have other books to read, work to do and a novel to finish!). But I will certainly read as many as I can and continue reading them during 2019!

If you're a publisher or publicist, please do get in touch if you published any relevant books in 2018 or have something coming up in 2019. I'm not looking for 'free books'(!) - very happy to buy a book if I feel it's right for me.