Literature

Israel's ambassador in Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, right, holds documents prior to a handing over ceremony at the embassy of Israel in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. German authorities are handing over to Israel some 5,000 documents kept by a confidant of Franz Kafka, a trove whose plight could have been plucked from one of the author's surreal stories. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

May 22, 2019, 6:39 am

Germany hands Israel thousands of Kafka confidant’s papers

Max Brod’s trove of documents provide window into Europe’s literary scene in the early 20th century, experts say

By David Rising

Argentina's writer Jorge Luis Borges talks in his Buenos Aires apartment on November 20, 1981. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia)

May 4, 2019, 3:08 am

Jorge Luis Borges’ love for Israel and Jews revealed in new book

Collection of Argentine author’s writings, photos and letters explores his Jewish connection, including friendship with David Ben-Gurion and visits to Israel

By JTA

May 1, 2019, 12:08 pm

Why is Holocaust fiction still so popular?

With the number of survivors shrinking, anti-Semitism on the rise, and enough time gone by for stories to be shared openly, writers and readers find the genre as relevant as ever

By Emily Burack

Israeli author Ayelet Tsabari. (Collage by Alma; Tsabari photo: Jonathan Bloom)

February 24, 2019, 1:56 am

Israeli writer Ayelet Tsabari on being a literal, literary wandering Jew

The author’s upcoming memoir, which will be published in English, charts her own struggles and those of Mizrahi Jews in Israel

By Emily Burack

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