David Bennun

Writer

Latest from David Bennun

Books

From the Front Line review: Vasily Grossman gives us an unrivalled picture of the war

David Bennun is mesmerised by the Soviet Jewish journalist’s articles, and what they reveal about him

5 min read

Obdurate insistence: the writer Vasily Grossman, and Jews arriving at Treblinka in August 1942

Landscape around the small Spanish town of Daroca (Image: Getty Images)

Even an escape to the sun lies in the long shadow of this conflict

3 min read

Go and see Paul Simon – an icon of New York’s Jewish golden age

3 min read

Kanye West, also known as Ye (Image: Getty)

The Kanye West affair isn’t as bad as it seems –it’s much, much worse

3 min read

The Tribe review: ‘a brilliantly told story of a once gilded Sephardi family’

This epic set in Jewish Salonica is full of ideas, marvellously rich in detail and its people feel real

2 min read

April 7, 2026 16:21

The way we were: Michael Arditti's new saga, and the Kovo family in Salonica, in Greece, which under Ottoman rule was Europe's only Jewish-majority city

They may think of me as a bloodthirsty Zionist – but I still love their art

Their music, films and books belongs to me as much as to anyone else. The possibility that they might hate the joy I take in them is just a bonus

4 min read

March 31, 2026 10:58

Roger Waters, founding member of former rock band Pink Floyd, performs in Buenos Aires on March 7, 2010 as part of his "The Wall Live" world tour. (Image: Getty)

Will Self: What inspired me to write this book? The Glasto crowd chanting ‘Death to the IDF’

Twenty years on from his public resignation as a Jew, the novelist explains where he stands now

6 min read

March 25, 2026 13:59

One-state solutionist: Will Self and his new book

Howard Jacobson: ‘October 7? It was as if permission had been given to do this to the Jews’

The novelist on how an extended rant against the surge in global antisemitism turned into his brilliant new book Howl

7 min read

March 4, 2026 13:40

Virtuoso phrasemaker: Howard Jacobson at the launch of his new book (Photo: Gary Manhine)

Western Holocaust erasure and antizionism follows an old Soviet script

It is curious how the day marking the liberation of Auschwitz is the only date in the year when so many people who otherwise obsess endlessly about Jews suddenly lose the capacity to mention Jews at all

4 min read

February 5, 2026 14:08

How I found the real Philip Roth

David Bennun talks to Steven J. Zipperstein about his new literary biography of the pre-eminent Jewish novelist

6 min read

January 15, 2026 13:39

Defying his detractors: Philip Roth (right) and Steven J Zipperstein

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

David Bennun has high praise for The Effingers, a beautifully subtle novel describing Germany’s slide into Nazism

5 min read

December 18, 2025 16:55

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This critical biography of Carole King pays close attention to her Jewishness and how, while lightly worn, it informed her life and work

1 min read

December 4, 2025 17:35

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

A welcome guide on combatting extremism from a figure who can draw on decades of hard-won street-level experience doing exactly that

4 min read

October 29, 2025 15:07

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

This historical account of antisemitism is a remarkable exercise in cognitive dissonance

3 min read

September 25, 2025 13:12

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

In his latest book, James Bloodworth immerses himself in the so-called manosphere and finds a world that closely resembles, and frequently crosses over with, the far right. Not least in its attitudes to Jews

2 min read

August 7, 2025 11:24

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude

From the viewpoints of its three protagonists, ‘The Unworthy’ is a credible depiction of its tough working-class world

1 min read

July 31, 2025 11:08

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude

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David Bennun

Latest from David Bennun

From the Front Line review: Vasily Grossman gives us an unrivalled picture of the war

Even an escape to the sun lies in the long shadow of this conflict

Go and see Paul Simon – an icon of New York’s Jewish golden age

The Kanye West affair isn’t as bad as it seems –it’s much, much worse

More from David Bennun

The Tribe review: ‘a brilliantly told story of a once gilded Sephardi family’

They may think of me as a bloodthirsty Zionist – but I still love their art

Will Self: What inspired me to write this book? The Glasto crowd chanting ‘Death to the IDF’

Howard Jacobson: ‘October 7? It was as if permission had been given to do this to the Jews’

Western Holocaust erasure and antizionism follows an old Soviet script

How I found the real Philip Roth

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude