MJBW is pleased to have contributed to the strength, resilience and creativity shown by our community during this difficult year. It has been our privilege to present curated literary events for your enjoyment. We would like to thank you for your support and generosity which has inspired us to continue programming digital sessions that are different, that enliven the mind and the spirit. Our next event in October, 'Reconciliation, Identity and Imagined Futures', promises to be something special.
Jewish New Year is almost upon us and we hope that our carefully picked selection of books will provide some literary comfort as we usher in the next year. Our recommendations are a prelude to the 'Summer Reading Guide' online event in November which will feature Tali Lavi, Bram Presser and Elissa Goldstein. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our local independent bookstores, writers, supporters, and members of the MJBW team.
This year, the traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings for a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year have a resonance for the entire world. From near and far, until we can all meet again, 'Shana tova u'metukah' – have a safe and sweet New Year.
Warm regards
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Esther Kister
Chair, MJBW
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Nicolas Brasch
Festival Director, MJBW
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Highly recommended by Tali Lavi
Recollections of My Non-Existence
by Rebecca Solnit
Rebecca Solnit is one of our finest contemporary writers and thinkers; a prolific essayist and non-fiction writer whose preoccupations have revolved around feminism, society and place. This memoir, its language aglow with clarity and grace, seeks to address numerous states of disappearance; a young female seeking to be heard and seen, the elisions of people from a city’s narrative, a surrender into literature. Solnit’s voice rings out as richly toned and resonant as a bell.
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The Happiest Man on Earth
by Eddie Jaku
It would be remiss of us not to mention Eddie Jaku, a survivor of the Holocaust who made a vow to smile every day for the rest of his life. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. Published as Eddie turned 100 earlier this year, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times. 'Mazal tov' to Eddie whose book has just reached number one on the non-fiction bestseller list in Australia.
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Highly recommended by Bram Presser
The Slaughterman’s Daughter
by Yaniv Iczkovits
Fanny Keismann’s attempt to chase down her sister’s wayward husband with the help of Breshov, the town eccentric, goes horribly, hilariously wrong when they come to the attention of the Tsar’s secret police. Hands down my favourite novel of 2020, The Slaughterman’s Daughter is an epic romp through the Pale of Settlement, in the vein of the Yiddish and Russian greats, but with a thoroughly contemporary edge.
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Highly recommended by Emma Kranz
Captivity
by Gyorgy Spiro
(translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson)
Born in 1946 in Budapest, award-winning dramatist and novelist, Gyorgy Spiro has earned a reputation as one of postwar Hungary's most prominent and prolific literary figures. Captivity is both a sophisticated historical novel and a gripping page-turner. Set in the tumultuous first century A.D., between the year of Christ’s death and the outbreak of the Jewish War, Captivity recounts the adventures of the feeble-bodied, bookish Uri, a young Roman Jew. First published in 2015 and well worth seeking out.
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Vida: A Woman For Our Time
by Jacqueline Kent
Blazing her trail at the dawn of the twentieth century, Vida Goldstein remains Australia’s most celebrated crusader for the rights of women. Her life – as a campaigner for the suffrage in Australia, Britain and America, an advocate for peace, a fighter for social equality and a shrewd political commentator – marks her as one of Australia’s foremost women of courage and principle. Jacqueline Kent has written acclaimed biographies of Julia Gillard, Hephzibah Menuhin, and pioneer book editor Beatrice Davis.
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Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative and Fate
by Daniel Mendelsohn
A profound meditation on the relationship of storytelling to history. Combining memoir, biography, fiction, history, and literary criticism, Three Rings weaves together the stories of three exiled writers who turned to the classics of the past to create masterpieces of their own. Intertwined with these tales of exile and artistic crisis is an account of Mendelsohn’s struggles to write two of his own books. Even our favourite writers have their doubts!
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SUPPORT MELBOURNE JEWISH BOOK WEEK
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Donations to MJBW enable us to continue to bring leading writers and thinkers into your homes.
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Melbourne Jewish Book Week is a not-for-profit organisation with registered charitable and Deductible Gift Recipient status. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. We gratefully acknowledge your continued support of MJBW and welcome any contributions.
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