Literature

Protesters react as they listen to the speech of the Turkish President during a protest rally in Istanbul on May 18, 2018, against the recent killings of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza-Israel border and the US embassy move to Jerusalem. (AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE)

August 6, 2018, 4:14 am

For exiled novelist, today’s Turkey is ‘like Nazi Germany’

‘I think it is a fascist regime. It is not yet 1940s Germany, but 1930s,’ says Asli Erdogan (no relation)

By Michelle Fitzpatrick

Judy Blume in New York City in 2004. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images/via JTA)

May 24, 2018, 2:48 pm

10 writers not named Roth who capture female US Jewish experience

These women of words speak to today’s generation, in which gender and culture are perceived very differently

By Emily Burack

Polish author Olga Tokarczuk smiles after winning the Man Booker International prize 2018, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, for her book Flights, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (Matt Crossick//PA via AP)

May 23, 2018, 10:07 am

Polish winner of Man Booker Prize chronicles little-known Jewish sect’s history

With a style mixing real with mystical and books on human anatomy and Frankism, Olga Tokarczuk is considered the country’s most talented novelist of her generation

By Bernard OSSER

Adam Freudenheim, head of Pushkin publishing house. (Courtesy)

March 3, 2018, 12:45 pm

Babel revisited: Little-known books find homes on foreign shelves — in English

From Holocaust memoirs to fairy tales, Adam Freudenheim’s Pushkin Press hits record margins by taking popular international literature to the Anglo crowd

By Nadine Wojakovski

February 8, 2018, 3:18 pm

Moshe Simkovich

Who’s afraid of Tova Mirvis?

Should her memoir about leaving Modern Orthodoxy be required study material for day school students?

Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld, who died at the age of 85 on January 4, 2018. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

January 4, 2018, 11:23 am

Aharon Appelfeld, literary giant who gave vivid voice to Holocaust, dies at 85

Winner of multiple literary awards, the prolific Appelfeld published his most recent book just three months ago

By Jessica Steinberg

December 28, 2017, 11:43 pm

In new Nicole Krauss novel, Tel Aviv is the backdrop for two US Jews’ reboot

Celebrated author mines her own lifelong relationship with Israel in ‘Forest Dark,’ a meditation on love, Franz Kafka and the ‘what ifs’ of life

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe are shown in a scene from 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.' (AP/Warner Bros. Pictures)

October 25, 2017, 8:17 pm

Harry Potter’s ‘sacred meaning’ probed by Harvard chaplains

Touted as ‘the English class you didn’t know you missed,’ a podcast based on J.K. Rowling’s iconic series has converted Muggles around the country

By Matt Lebovic

Anne Frank's hiding place bedroom during the 1950s (left) and her restored bedroom at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam today (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)

June 10, 2017, 7:21 am

Publication of Anne Frank’s diary saved her ‘Secret Annex’ from destruction

60 years ago, the Netherlands avoided ‘national scandal’ when activists rescued the wartime hiding place

By Matt Lebovic

Idra Novey, author of 'Ways to Disappear.' (Donata Zanotti)

May 20, 2017, 3:21 am

The award-winning novel that appeared out of nowhere

Acclaimed translator Idra Novey’s debut book ‘Ways to Disappear’ is a five-year secret project turned Sami Rohr Prize winner

By Cathryn J. Prince

Walter Benjamin at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1937. (© Gisèle Freund - RMN, image provided by
IMEC, Fonds MCC, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, New York)

March 25, 2017, 2:09 pm

Take a stroll through philosopher Walter Benjamin’s brain at new NY exhibit

His tragic death in the Holocaust cut short the Jewish thinker’s 1,000 page opus. Through August 6, the Jewish Museum in New York’s immersive exhibit ‘Arcades’ brings it to life

By Cathryn J. Prince

Students from St Angela’s School, Ursuline Convent view 'Representations of Jews in Irish Literature' exhibition at Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland, February 2017 (Jennifer Bolger/WIT)

March 15, 2017, 3:08 pm

Dracula the ‘Wandering Jew,’ and other unknown facets of Irish lit in NY-bound exhibition

From the Middle Ages and the Annals of Innisfallen to Leopold Bloom, Jews are a surprisingly constant presence in a millennium of Irish writing

By Renee Ghert-Zand

This undated photo provided on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017 shows Palestinian author Abbad Yahya. (Abbad Yahyia via AP)

February 10, 2017, 3:52 pm

Palestinian writer afraid to go home amid uproar over novel

Book uses ‘sexual terms,’ challenges attitudes toward fanaticism, religious extremism and homosexuality, and critiques PA

By Mohammed Daraghmeh

Bulgarian-French philosopher Tzvetan Todorov appears on the literary TV show 'Campus' on French TV in Paris, October 2, 2003. (AFP/Martin Bureau/File)

February 8, 2017, 8:22 pm

Literary theorist, Holocaust thinker Tzvetan Todorov dies at 77

Bulgarian-born writer found acts of generosity among inmates even in inhumane conditions of Nazi camps

By JTA

Writer Michael Chabon speaking at The New Yorker Festival 2014 on October 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for The New Yorker Festival via JTA)

January 11, 2017, 11:44 pm

Michael Chabon, Daniel Gordis win National Jewish Book Awards

‘Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn’ declared book of the year; author of ‘The Yiddish Policemen’s Union’ also honored

By JTA