<p>I am looking for some recommendations for books that, through fictional characters, reveal or explore aspects of Judaism. Something an updated Chiam Potok novel . . .</p>
<p>Daniel Silva (author of the Robert Alon series), Faye Kellerman, Susan Isaacs (her last book was disappointing), Leon Uris (much older writer), James Michener (Exodus)</p>
<p>The Cookbook Collector - Allegra Goodman</p>
<p>The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman</p>
<p>I read the first book shortly after it came out in 2010 and remember liking it. I haven’t read the second one yet, but my local librarian highly recommended it.</p>
<p>You might enjoy checking out the sefersafari.com site.</p>
<p>The Dovekeepers is excellent but it is about Masada (so not modern times)</p>
<p>Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner</p>
<p>Snow in August by Pete Hamil</p>
<p>Naomi Ragan’s books are excellent.</p>
<p>Day After Night by Anita Diamant is fantastic. I just loved it.</p>
<p>People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Very skillfully written.</p>
<p>The Invisible Bridge. Great book.</p>
<p>This may sound like an off-the-wall recommendation and the books aren’t serious literary fiction like those that posters mention above–but check out the work of Faye Kellerman. She’s authored a lengthy series of mysteries where the main crime-solvers are a husband and wife (Peter Decker–an LAPD Lieutenant and Rina Lazarus). Both characters are Orthodox Jews and there’s quite a bit about Orthodox Judaism in the books, especially in the early books in the series (Decker finds out after meeting Lazarus when he’s investigating a murder at a yeshiva that he has a Jewish background–he was adopted.) Kellerman’s husband Jonathan also writes mysteries. They are the only husband and wife who each had a book on the NY Times Best Seller list simultaneously.</p>
<p>My favorite authors in this genre are Dara Horn and Nicole Kraus, especially “A History of Love.” I also liked Geraldine Brooks and Allegra Goodman mentioned above. </p>
<p>Plus check out Jonathan Safran Foer and Michael Chabon. Very challenging book that covers new territory is Nathan Englander, “what we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank” which is a group of essays really and not about Anne Frank directly.</p>
<p>Maggie Anton, maybe not as skilled a writer as those above, wrote a trilogy of novels called “Rashi’s Daughters” that gives you a feel for Jewish life in the Middle Ages through the family life of the sage’s daughters.</p>
<p>Allegra Goodman also wrote Kaaterskill Falls, very interesting characters and values conflicts in traditional community</p>
<p>Michael Chabon. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.</p>
<p>From a modern Israeli perspective : try translated works from the unbelievably great writer Amos Oz. and for poetry, Yehudah Amichai.</p>
<p>Here’s a quirkier recommendation–“The Frozen Rabbi” by Steve Stern, which is set for the most part in Memphis of all places–it’s where he (and I, not coincidentally) grew up.</p>
<p>Golden Country by Gilmore
A Woman in Jerusalem by Yehoshua
Away by Bloom
Bad Mother<a href=“not%20fiction%20but%20essays”>/U</a> by Waldman
The End of the Land by Grossman
Exile by Patterson
The Finkler Question by Jacobson
The Middlesteins by Attenberg</p>
<p>Amesie, I’m curious why you’re interested??</p>
<p>I just read The Storyteller by Jodu Picoult for the second time! I love her work but this is amazing and difficult and such an important read! Wow!!! I chose it for my BookClub and this was the first time in our BookClub history that we talked about the almost the whole time lol…I made a whole Shabbat meal and shared our traditional Sabbath meal and prayers…</p>
<p>The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, by Lucette Lagnado - family immigration saga from Egypt through Paris to NYC during the 1970’s/80’s. Sheds light on some universal themes of dislocation, loss, and resilience, with the focus on the author’s father. She recently published a sequel in which her mother gets more airtime.</p>
<p>I was recently introduced to writer, Pam Jenoff’s collection. I also love Faye Kellerman’s novels. Ellie Wisel’s book, Hostage, is on my list.</p>
<p>The sequel to “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit” is “The Arrogant Years” which I recently read. Of course these are memoirs, not fiction. </p>
<p>Re: Chaim Potok mentioned in the first post, I recently re-read “My Name is Asher Lev” having seen the off-Broadway production and I really enjoyed it once again.</p>
<p>There is an entire wealth of Holocaust specific literature by contemporary writers and of those, my recent favorite is “The Invisible Bridge” by Judith Orringer. Recently read “The Lost Wife” and of course “Sarah’s Key”. There is the rediscovered work of the French writer, Irene Nemerov. Another favorite is “Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum.</p>