30 June 20 • 2019
jn
SANDEE BRAWARSKY SUMMER READING
books
arts&life
Our annual compilation of new books offers
everything from page-turners to politics —
all with a Jewish connection.
THE
GOSPEL
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LAZARUS
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A brave and engaging novel . . . a page-turner’
Observer
The Gospel According to Lazarus
by Richard Zimler (Peter Owen
Publishing/IPG) is an imaginative
retelling of how Jesus brought his
friend Lazarus back from the dead
and then how Lazarus struggles to
regain his previous identity, flash-
ing back to the boyhood and close
friendship of the two in Nazareth. The
novel recounts the story of the last
week of the life of Jesus, through the
perspective of Lazarus. Zimler, who
lives in Portugal and is the author of
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and other
novels, brings mysticism and historical
research to his telling.
In celebration of the matriarch’s
70th birthday, the extended Feldman
family take a cruise together in The
Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Freidland
(Berkley). Not exactly a celebration, the
time sequestered together afloat on the
Ocean Queen is filled with eating and
feuding, as family secrets, rivalries and
tensions surface. In alternating voices,
the story unfolds with compassion and
humor.
A first novel set in 1666 by an author
who has published acclaimed short
stories, The Organs of Sense by Adam
Ehrlich Sachs (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
explores science, politics and family
dynamics, layered with philosophy, his-
torical facts and humor. Here a blind
astronomer using the longest telescope
ever built, encounters the young math
genius Gottfried Leibniz, just before
the predicted time of a solar eclipse
said to result in total darkness.
Death and Other Happy Endings
(Pamela Dorman Books/Viking) is
the fictional debut of 62-year-old
author Melanie Cantor, who previous-
ly worked as a celebrity press agent
before hosting a television series on
home design in Great Britain. In this
romantic comedy, a woman who is
told she has a terminal illness with
three months to live sets out to put her
affairs in order with unusual candor
through letters to her ex-husband,
ex-boyfriend and difficult sister.
The Song of the Jade Lily by
Australian writer Kirsty Manning
(Morrow) is a historical novel that
opens in Shanghai in 1944, flashes back
to Vienna and Australia in 1938, and
then ahead to London in 2016, and
then back to Australia and Shanghai
as well. This is a story of refugees,
friendship, hardship, love, loyalty
and courage that recreates wartime
Shanghai and its Jewish refugee com-
munity.
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is
a collection of stories by rediscovered
literary voice Bette Rowland (Public
Space), who received many awards
decades ago and then largely disap-
peared from public notice until the end
of her life. Rowland, born in Chicago
and championed by Saul Bellow, who
was for a time a lover, observes life
with empathy and humor, in the tradi-
tion of Grace Paley.
Set in a weight loss camp for adults
in a Vermont mansion, Waisted by
Randy Susan Meyers (Atria Books)
tells of a group of women determined
to lose extra pounds who agree to be
filmed as they take part in a program
promising dramatic results. This is a
story of sisterhood and self-respect as
the women conspire against those in
charge.
Julie Zuckerman’s debut, The Book
of Jeremiah (Press 53), a novel in
stories full of rich imagery, spans the
life of a regular guy named Jeremiah
— son of Jewish immigrants, professor
of political science, husband, father
— over eight decades, showing his
determination, missteps and inspiring
humanity.
A first novel set over three conti-
nents and spanning four generations,
The Limits of the World by Jennifer
Acker (Delphinium Books) is the story
of an American family, emigrants from
the Indian enclave in Nairobi. The
family has many secrets when they
are forced to return to Nairobi by an
unforeseen accident. One of the secrets
is that their son’s Jewish-American
girlfriend, who is with them in Kenya,
is already his wife. As she unfolds this
family saga, Acker, founder and editor-
in-chief of The Common, considers
family ties, cultural misunderstandings,
immigration, empathy and love.
A first novel of historical fiction,
A Bend in the Stars by Rachel
Barenbaum (Grand Central
Publishing) opens in 1914 Russia as
war is in the air and life is increas-
ingly difficult for Jews. A pair of sib-
FICTION