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lings — she is studying to be a surgeon 
and he is a physicist racing Einstein 
to prove relativity — face the tough 
decision as to whether to stay or leave, 
and how to protect each other and 
all they have learned. When he goes 
missing, his sister risks all to fight for 
him in this story of love, adventure 
and science. 
The Rabbi Finds Her Way by Robert 
Schoen with Catherine deCuir (Stone 
Bridge Press) is a career coming-of-age 
story, as a young Reform rabbi joins a 
large California congregation as associ-
ate rabbi. The novel opens up the world 
of a female congregational rabbi, with 
some familiar scenes and unusual twists. 
The sprawling Hotel Neversink is the 
crown jewel of the Catskills, founded in 
1931 by a Jewish immigrant family who 
used every penny they could find to buy 
the grand mansion on top of a hill. Told 
through the voices of family members 
and others who have passed through the 
grand hotel, Adam O’
Fallon Price’
s The 
Hotel Neversink (Tin House) follows the 
family over a century, through ambitious 
undertakings, mysterious vanishings, 
family secrets, comedy, love stories and 
a younger generation’
s desire to keep the 
place alive.

The Volunteer: One Man. An Under-
ground Army and the Secret Mission to 
Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather 
(Custom House) is the nonfiction account 
of a Polish resistance fighter who infiltrat-
ed Auschwitz, organized a rebellion and 
assassinations of Nazi officers, smuggled 
out information and then managed to slip 
out of the camp to report on what was 
going on there. The author, who has been 
a war reporter for the Washington Post 

and other papers, explains that the story 
was erased from the historical record by 
Poland’
s communist government and has 
remained unknown until now.
A debut novel by an American writer 
living in Israel, Make it Concrete by 
Miryam Sivan (Cuidono Press) is the 
story of a writer who ghostwrites the 
stories of Holocaust survivors, on tight 
schedules. Friends encourage the writer, 
an independent spirit, to do something 
different, as she is haunted by the ghosts 
of personal and communal history. The 
story she wants to tell most is that of 
her mother, also a survivor, whose own 
story is tightly held.
Julie Orringer’
s anticipated novel The 
Flight Portfolio (Knopf) is based on the 
true story of Varian Fry, an American 
journalist who helped rescue thousands 
of Jewish refugees during World War II, 
including many artists and writers. Set 
in France and opening at the Chagalls’
 
home, the novel is filled with suspense, 
history, art and a love story. 
Mistress of the Ritz (Delacorte) is a 
novel by Melanie Benjamin set during 
World War ll, inspired by the cou-
rageous story of Blanche Azuello, a 
Jewish-American woman who created a 
new identity for herself in Paris, where 
she worked undercover for the French 
Resistance and played hostess at the 
Ritz Hotel, serving Nazis. 
Based on extensive research into 
true events — the massacre of a French 
village in June 1944 — Armando 

Lucas Correa’
s novel, The Daughter’
s 
Tale (Atria), is set between New York 
City and Berlin, unfolding a story of 
family, love, sacrifice, survival against 
odds and reckoning with the past. The 
novel is inspired by the true story of a 
Holocaust survivor Correa met after 
the publication of his first novel, The 
German Girl, based on the true story 
of the S.S. St. Louis, a transatlantic 
liner offering Jews safe passage out of 
Germany.
An untold story of World War II, 
Scholars of Mayhem: My Father’
s 
Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France by 
Daniel C. Guiet and Timothy K. Smith 
(Penguin Press) tells of Guiet’
s father, 
who worked clandestinely behind 
German lines in France to coordinate 
aid for the French Resistance and also 
lead missions against German military 
efforts. Guiet learned that his father had 
been in the CIA, but only at the end of 
his life did his father, a native French 
speaker, begin to tell of his successful 
missions during World War II. Guiet 
was the only American involved in 
a unit of Britain’
s Special Operations 
executive code-named Salesman. The 
unit parachuted into France the day 
after D-Day and organized an army of 
10,000 Resistance fighters. Daniel Guiet 
and Smith, a reporter and editor, spent 
several years researching and docu-
menting this story, including Guiet’
s 
written account of his wartime experi-
ence. 

HOLOCAUST

Newcomers 
in an Ancient 
Land: Adventures, 
Love, and Seeking Myself in 
1960s Israel by Paula Wagner 
(She Writes Press) is a coming-of-
age story by a writer who travels 
to Israel with her twin sister at 
age 18 to learn more about their 
father’
s Jewish background. She 
falls in love with the land and the 
language, and her life is trans-
formed during a momentous era.
Chutzpah: Why Israel Is 
a Hub of Innovation and 
Entrepreneurship (Harper) by 
Inbal Arieli, a leader in Israeli 
high-tech and co-CEO of True 
Synthesis, is a leadership assess-
ment and development company, 
connects the country’
s economic 
success — with its high concen-
tration of startups — to the way 
Israelis are raised in a culture of 
risk-taking, independence, cre-
ativity and resiliency.
 Jerusalem: City of the Book 
by Merav Mack and Benjamin 
Balint, with photography by 
Frederic Brenner (Yale University 
Press), explores the hidden librar-
ies and archives of the city and 
the librarians who care for them, 
unfolding the history of the city 
through ideas developed there 
over centuries. The book opens 
with a quote from Jorge Luis 
Borges, “I have always imagined 
that Paradise will be a kind of 
library.
”
In his latest book, Defending 
Israel: The Story of my 
Relationship with my Most 
Challenging Client (All Points 
Books/St. Martin’
s Publishing 
Group, out in September), 
high-profile lawyer and profes-
sor Alan Dershowitz recounts 
behind-the-scenes stories and 
incredible “mock trials” he has 
done in defending a land he 
learned to love at summer camp 
in 1948. An ardent supporter, he 
is not above harshly criticizing 
Israel when he disagrees with its 
actions. He also chronicles chang-
ing attitudes toward Israel and 
offers a new way of thinking and 
defending the Jewish homeland.

ISRAEL

YOUNG READERS

Gittel’
s Journey: An Ellis Island Story 
(Abrams Books) by Leslea Newman 
and illustrated by Amy June Bates is a 
heart-warming and heart-wrenching story 
about Gittel and her mother coming to 
America. It is based on Newman’
s grand-
mother and a family friend, among many 
other children. The spare text works well 
as a read-aloud, and the book is beautiful-
ly designed and illustrated. 
In Saving Hanno: The Story of a 
Refugee Dog (Holiday House Books), 
geared to readers ages 8-12, Miriam 
Halahmy tells the tale of 9-year-old 
Rudi, who escapes Nazi Germany on a 
Kindertransport to England. He wants to 
bring his dachshund, Hanno, but cannot, 
yet his family finds a way to smuggle 
Hanno to London. When the German 
invasion seems imminent and many 
British citizens start euthanizing their 
pets, Rudi and other kids are determined 
to save their furry friends. 

When Charlie, 12, starts doing research 
on her namesake, Great-Aunt Lottie, a 
violin prodigy, she uncovers details that 
may conclude that maybe Lottie did not 
die in the Holocaust. In Searching for 
Lottie (Holiday House Books) by Susan 
L. Ross, for ages 8-12, pieces of the puzzle 
fall into place in this intriguing, intergen-
erational mystery. 
Based on true events, Francesco Tirelli’
s 
Ice-Cream Shop by Tamar Meir, beauti-
fully illustrated by Yael Albert (Kar-Ben), 
is the story of a young boy who loved 
eating ice cream from his uncle’
s cart and 
then opened his own shop years later in 
Budapest. During the war years, he closes 
the shop and hides Jews and others in 
danger, saving lives.
Kol Hakavod: Way to Go by Jamie 
Kiffel-Alcheh and illustrated by Sarah-
Jayne Mercer (Kar-Ben) provides appeal-
ing examples of respect and small kind-
nesses that can be shared.

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