Staff Picks
Different from All Other Nights: Jewish Non-Holocaust Historical Fiction
- Sara M.
- Tuesday, January 01, 2019
Collection
There are many beautiful, moving historical fiction books about the Holocaust. None of them are on this list! If you'd like to read some fiction about the many other periods in Jewish history, this list is for you. (Some of these may have characters with memories of the Holocaust or partially take place in World War II, but the Holocaust experience is not the main focus.)
This list is part of the #BroaderBookshelf2019 reading challenge. Find more lists here.
Modern Girls
Published in 2016
"A dazzling debut novel set in New York City's Jewish immigrant community in 1935... How was it that out of all the girls in the office, I was the one to find myself in this situation? This didn't happen to nice Jewish girls. In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options. After the birth of five children--and twenty years as a housewife--Dottie's immigrant mother, Rose, is itching to return to the social activism she embraced as a young woman. With strikes and breadlines at home and National Socialism rising in Europe, there is much more important work to do than cooking and cleaning. So when she realizes that she, too, is pregnant, she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith. As mother and daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never again be the same..."-- Provided by publisher.
The Serpent's Tale
Published in 2009
Adelia Aguilar, mistress of the art of death, is summoned, along with Rowley Picot, the Bishop of Saint Albans, by King Henry II to investigate the murder of his mistress, Rosamund Clifford, and to find evidence against the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
The Physician
Published in 2012
Eleventh-century England and Persia are the backgrounds of this story of an orphan named Rob Cole, who is apprenticed to a travelling barber-surgeon and, discovering in himself a gift for healing, decides to study medicine with the legendary Avicenna.
The Dovekeepers
A Novel
Published in 2011
A tale inspired by the tragic first-century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.
By Fire, by Water
A Novel
Published in 2010
Luis de Santangel, chancellor to the court and longtime friend of the lusty King Ferdinand, has had enough of the Spanish Inquisition. As the power of Inquisitor General Tomas de Torquemada grows, so does the brutality of the Spanish church and the suspicion and paranoia it inspires. When a dear friend's demise brings the violence close to home, Santangel takes retribution into his own hands, though the risk is great. Santangel is from a family of conversos, and his Jewis heritage makes him an easy target. Soon, he finds himself implicated in the murder of the first Chief Inquisitor of Aragon and in possession of a mysterious text that has spelled death for Jews for centuries. As he witnesses the horrific persecution of his loved ones, he begins slowly to reconnect with the Jewish faith his family left behind. Feeding his curiosity about his past is his growing love for Judith Migdal, a clever and beautiful Jewis woman navigating the mounting tensions in Granada. While he struggles to decide what his reputation is worth and what he can sacrifice, one man offers him a chance he thought he'd lost ... the chance to hope for a better world. Chistopher Columbus has plans to discover a route to paradise, and only Luis de Santangel can help him.
The Fixer
Published in 2004
In Tsarist Russia, Yakov is accused of a ritual murder he did not commit.
The Source a Novel
Published in 2002
An archaeological excavation of Tell Makor launches a journey into the history and culture of the Jews that includes the early Hebrews, the impact of Christianity, the Spanish Inquisition, and the modern Middle East conflict.
The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi
Book One
Published in 2014
A sweeping saga of intrigue and romance set during the Italian Renaissance and told through the eyes of Grazia dei Rossi, a young Jewish woman torn between duty and forbidden romance, who wins our hearts with her recorded secrets of love. Grazia dei Rossi, private secretary to the world-renowned Isabella dEste, is the daughter of an eminent Jewish banker, the wife of the popes Jewish physician, and the lover of a Christian prince. In a secret book, written as a legacy for her son, she records her struggles to choose between the seductions of the Christian world and a return to the family, traditions, and duties to her Jewish roots. As she re-creates Renaissance Italy in captivating detail, Jacqueline Park gives us a timeless portrait of a brave and brilliant woman trapped in an unforgiving, inflexible society.
Exodus
Published in 2012
Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus --one of the great best-selling novels of all time.
The Golem and the Jinni
A Novel
Published in 2013
Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.
Bread Givers
A Novel
Published in 2017
This masterwork of American immigrant literature is set in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who rebels against her father's rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. Sarah's struggle towards independence and self-fulfillment resonates with a passion all can share. Compelling and beautifully written, Bread Givers is an essential historical work with enduring relevance.
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
Published in 2013
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, an international bestseller, is an extraordinary novel that transports listeners into the universe of Jewish Kabbalah during the Lisbon massacre of April 1506. Just a few years earlier, Jews living in Portugal were dragged to the baptismal font and forced to convert to Christianity. Many of these "New Christians" persevered in their Jewish prayers and rituals in secret and at great risk; the hidden, arcane practices of the kabbalists, a mystical sect of Jews, continued as well. One such secret Jew was Berekiah Zarco, an intelligent young manuscript illuminator. Inflamed by love and revenge, he searches, in the crucible of the raging pogrom, for the killer of his beloved uncle Abraham, a renowned kabbalist and manuscript illuminator, discovered murdered in a hidden synagogue along with a young girl in dishabille. Risking his life in streets seething with mayhem, Berekiah tracks down answers among Christians, New Christians, Jews, and the fellow kabbalists of his uncle, whose secret language and codes by turns light and obscure the way to the truth he seeks. A marvelous story, a challenging mystery, and a telling tale of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon both compels and entertains.