Judaism Fiction

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.

Vitality floods its pages. Philosophers and kings, warriors and merchants, poets and financiers come alive as the story ranges across time and the globe. From ancient Palestine through Europe and the Orient, to America and modern Israel, Max Dimont shows how the saga of the Jews is interwoven with the history of virtually every nation on earth.

This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family—steadfast, complicated, begrudging, and loving—from the bestselling author of Isola “Wise, witty . . . a deliciously readable book [about] the delicate minutiae of family life, played beautifully, boldly, brightly...

Based on a true story. Liliana is a beautiful and educated young Jewish woman. She marries Henry and becomes a mother to Rebecca. She has a full life ahead of her in Poland, or so it seems. The time period is the beginning of World War II, when the Germans invade Poland. To protect her, Liliana and Henry entrust Rebecca to their Christian friends. Shortly thereafter, Henry is among those taken to the concentration camp. Time passes, and Liliana knows little about the fate of her husband or daughter. To survive, Liliana (now known as Helena) assumes the identity of a Polish aristocrat and ...

A tour de force historical mystery from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat. Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has...

From the New York Times bestselling and National Jewish Book Award winning author: a dramatic and hopeful story of escape and survival in WWII Europe. It is October 1944, and Hitler has dispatched Adolf Eichmann and his death squads to Hungary to annihilate the Jewish population. Julia Powers...

Aviva Kagan was a just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida-and then disappeared. Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from is a NYC tabloid reporter named Rebekah Roberts. And Rebekah isn't sure she wants...

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman, so she went underground.

“Syrian Jewish culture gets the Jane Austen treatment, with sisters Nina, Fortune and Lucy—the rebel, the good girl and the baby of the family, respectively—all on the marriage market. What’s Mama Cohen to do? Chehebar’s witty debut dives deep into Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community...

A dazzling, richly imagined novel about Peggy Guggenheim—a story of art, family, love, and becoming oneself—by the award-winning author of Under the Bridge, now a Hulu limited series starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone “Godfrey brilliantly resurrects the avant-garde adventurer Peggy...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER To save his family's failing funeral home—and his own chance at a queer love story—a reluctant clairvoyant must embrace the gift he long ignored in this poignant and warmhearted debut. “For top-notch drama, this year’s medal goes to Rules for Ghosting. . . . Here...

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann, the head of operations for the Final Solution, walked into the mountains of Germany and vanished from view. Sixteen years later an elite team of spies captured him at a bus stop in Argentina and smuggled him to Israel, resulting in one of the century's most important trials - one that cemented the Holocaust in the public imagination.

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate. Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign, is the mind of the novelist Nathan Zuckerman.

“An extraordinary work of detection, suspense, and supernatural mystery. I spent three days totally lost in the world Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman have created. This is brilliant, page-turning fiction with mythic underpinnings that give it a special resonance; a rare collaboration where the...

Seville, 1492. As Spain celebrates the fall of Granada and the Edict of Expulsion is proclaimed, a gifted converso who speaks several tongues keeps the Shema hidden in his breath. At home he is Yosef; in the records he appears as Luis de Torres. His command of Hebrew, Arabic, and Castilian earns him a berth on Columbus’s expedition from Palos de la Frontera—caught between whispered prayers and the promise of gold. The Forgotten Interpreter is a work of historical fiction inspired by the real converso who sailed on the first Columbian voyage. From Sevillian courtyards to the decks of the...

The rural town of Stockton, New York, is famous for nothing: No one was born there, no one died there, nothing of any historical import at all has ever happened there, which is why Solomon Kugel, like other urbanites fleeing their pasts and histories, decided to move his wife and young son there...

David's quest spans numerous philosophies and religions, culminating with the Person of Yeshua - Jesus the Messiah. He is plummeted into a vigorous spiritual tug of war. Part of him is intrigued and fascinated by the Messiah, while another is plagued by guilt. How could a Jewish person like himself believe in Yeshua considering all the horrific acts that have been done to his ancestors in His name? You will soon discover that though atrocities have been committed in the name of Yeshua, the greatest crime of all may be against the Messiah Himself...a crime of identity theft.

When Gabe proposes on a boat, Leah knows better than to expect smooth sailing. Sure, blending traditions and managing family expectations for an interfaith wedding will be tricky—but she never expected a full-blown disaster. Leaky pipes, fire sprinklers, and even a hurricane conspire to rain on their perfect wedding, turning her dreams into a total washout. As one mishap snowballs into another, Leah starts to wonder: is this just bad luck, or is the universe (or maybe God?) trying to send her a message? Brimming with wit, drama, and the vibrant energy of Manhattan, Goy in the Chuppah is a...

Discover the rich tapestry of folklore woven into Jewish traditions. From magical creatures like Golems and Succubi to talismans, charms and even the esoteric origins of the celebratory cry of "mazel tov", this comprehensive review by Joshua Trachtenberg, a Reform rabbi and PhD holder from Columbia University, offers a detailed and captivating history of Jewish magical belief and practice from the 10th to 15th century.