Jewish novels that explore lives shattered and rebuilt: Moriel Rothman-Zecher’s ‘Before All the World’ and Dani Shapiro’s ‘Signal Fires’
Before All the World by Moriel Rothman-Zecher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Ikh gleyb nit az di gantze velt iz kheyshekh: I do not believe that all the world is darkness. This is the central refrain at the heart of Moriel Rothman-Zecher’s thought-provoking novel. Before All the World is told from the perspectives of Leyb and […]
Winnipeg writer Méira Cook’s ‘The Full Catastrophe’ is a novel about embracing who you are
Méira Cook’s most recent novel is a love story. But it’s not the kind you may think. The Full Catastrophe is the story of an aging Holocaust survivor, his optimistic grandson and learning to embrace who you are. The book, which Cook considers to be a crossover story for teenagers and adults, focuses on Charlie […]
5 finalists have been announced for the 2022 J.I. Segal Award for best Jewish-themed book from Quebec
An eclectic mix of memoir, history and fiction describes the five recent books, two of them in French, shortlisted for the $5,000 J.I. Segal Award for Best Quebec Book on a Jewish Theme. Administered by Montreal’s Jewish Public Library (JPL), the awards are bestowed every two years. The three memoirs are: A Promise of Sweet […]
‘A Ballet of Lepers’ is giving readers a glimpse into how Leonard Cohen became Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen was mythologized as an enlightened master of verse when he died 17 days after release of his final album, You Want It Darker, whose title track contained an eerily prophetic sampling of the Kaddish prayer, which is recited collectively by mourners in synagogue. Yet even the most inspired of writers must work tirelessly […]
A dive into the newest Canadian Jewish non-fiction—from Moshe Safdie on architecture to Christopher Silver on music in North Africa
If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture by Moshe Safdie (Grove Press/Atlantic Monthly Press) As a child in my native Ottawa, I always admired the elegance of the National Gallery of Canada. A particularly striking feature is the long ramp with exposed glass through which natural light shines and where one can gaze at […]
The CJN’s book columnist talks to author Kathy Kacer about how to write about the Holocaust for younger audiences and the true story of a Jewish circus performer
Since her debut The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser—the story of her mother’s own survival during the Holocaust—was published in 1999, celebrated Canadian author Kathy Kacer has gone on to write dozens of novels, largely for younger readers. Hidden on the High Wire, her latest effort, was published on Sept. 27, 2022. Based on remarkably true […]
The mysterious fate of one of Argentina’s ‘disappeared’ gets illuminated in a retired academic’s new book
Marc Raboy was easing into retirement in 2018 after a long academic career at McGill, when his partner suggested a trip to Argentina where she might practise her newly learned Spanish. The South American country had always held a latent curiosity for Raboy as his paternal grandfather spent a year there in the early 20th […]
Review: A new book about Maimonides challenges the idea that only Jews have a path to a spiritual life
Religious exclusivity poses a danger to the world-at-large, according to the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Within Jewry, denominational triumphalism and religious exclusivity, based on selective readings of Yehudah Halevi, Zohar and Nahmanides, threaten the unity of the Jewish people. A new book, Maimonides the Universalist: The Ethical Horizons of the Mishneh Torah by Menachem Kellner and […]
The CJN’s book columnist reads some poetry by Stuart Ross, a memoir by Judith Kalman and a novel by Shelly Sanders
This week we’re featuring some great books by Canadian authors in three different genres. The Book of Grief and Hamburgers by Stuart Ross (ECW Press) During the week of shiva we are meant to share memories of the person whom we are mourning. We laugh, we cry. We recall the good and the bad. We […]
Trouble begins when a swastika is found on a school wall in one of Gordon Korman’s latest books for younger readers
Forty-four years after one of his Grade 7 writing projects—for an English class assignment at German Mills Public School in Thornhill, Ont.—was published by Scholastic Canada as This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, Montreal-born Gordon Korman has maintained a storied career. June 2022 saw the publication of The Fort, the 100th book under his […]
