Become a Member

Sign in

Become a Member

News Community Opinion Life Recipes Judaism Social & Personal Archive Newsletters Cookbook Events

News Community Opinion Life Recipes Judaism Social & Personal Archive Newsletters Cookbook Events

Books

Books

2025 in review: Books

Our critics’ stand-out Jewish books of the year include eviscerating fiction, assiduously researched history, memoirs and reflections on the lives of poets

By Robert Low and Jennifer Lipman and Jenni Frazer and David Herman and Mark Glanville and Amanda Hopkinson and Monica Porter and Rabbi Howard Cooper

7 min read

2025 in review: Books

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

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

By David Bennun

5 min read

Good intentions: John Irving and his new book

John Irving’s latest: ‘an unapologetically Zionist heroine’

The author is to be applauded for exploring fundamental questions of Jewish identity in this era of misguided political correctness, but his manuscript needs a brutal edit

By Ben Felsenburg

3 min read

Virtuoso of Polish fiction: Bruno Schulz and the Pushkin Press edition of some his most famous stories

‘He was one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived’

Called a ‘Polish Franz Kafka’ by Bashevis Singer, Bruno Schulz wrote two books of short stories before he shot dead by an SS officer in 1942. Now the Pushkin Press has released a new anthology of his work

By David Herman

2 min read

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

By David Bennun

1 min read

So what exactly is Dan Brown’s secret? Who knows

I can’t recommend the author’s latest novel, but I have no doubt his fans will buy it in their millions

By Jenni Frazer

2 min read

How I managed to write my (very annoying) first novel

After a lifetime of trying, I have finally found my literary voice – by becoming a Jew

By Michael Kretzmer

3 min read

JC BooksDelivered Weekly

Unlock access to our community and get the latest news straight to your inbox!

All Newsletters

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.

More from Books

The Lobbyist review: A fun yarn of bribery, corruption and bonkfests galore

Lionel Zetter’s novel captures the rapacious spirit of Britain’s political centre

By Jennifer Lipman

1 min read

The Lobbyist review: A fun yarn of bribery, corruption and bonkfests galore

What Have I Done? review: A highly entertaining autobiography by the oft-maligned ‘Blackadder’ writer

Jewish comedian and writer Ben Elton settles old scores in this frank account of his life in showbiz

By Jenni Frazer

3 min read

Ben Elton's new autobiography 'What Have I Done?' (Photo: Macmillan)

The English houses brought to life with Jewish stories

The art historian Dan Cruikshank tells the story of the English house through eight very different buildings and, in the process, tells the story of the Jews in England

By Jenni Frazer

2 min read

The English houses brought to life with Jewish stories

From the Einstein of sex to letters by Oliver Sacks: meet the authors on the 2026 Wingate Prize longlist

The shortlist will be announced in mid-December and the winner early next year

By Siam Goorwich

2 min read

A selection of the titles on the 2026 Wingate Prize longlist

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

By David Bennun

4 min read

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

The Right of Passage review: a harrowing tale of a couple trapped in Nazi Europe

This moving and tense Holocaust memoir is a fitting tribute to a remarkable and courageous husband and wife whose lives ended in the most appalling circumstances, and who might otherwise be forgotten

3 min read

Distinguished: the logician Kurt Grelling translated Russell Bertrand's books into German

Fall, Bomb, Fall review: ‘haunting on the Dutch experience of war’

Originally published in 1950, and now translated into English by the Pushkin Press, the teenager at the centre of this novel is so bored he wishes for all-out war...

By David Herman

1 min read

Fall, Bomb, Fall review: ‘haunting on the Dutch experience of war’

I Wanted to be Wonderful review: The trials and tribulations of motherhood laid bare

This novel by Lihi Lapid follows two parallel stories to weave a heart-rending portrait of marriage and domesticity

By Jennifer Lipman

1 min read

I Wanted to be Wonderful review: The trials and tribulations of motherhood laid bare

Love’s Labour review: How psychoanalysis can help and hinder us in understanding our messy love lives

A deeply moving book of case histories which brings the experience of psychoanalysis to life

By David Herman

2 min read

The father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud has left his mark on modern love. (Photo: Wikimedia/ Chatto & Windus)

Hostage by Eli Sharabi review: ‘a highly readable account of barely imaginable nightmare’

The first hostage releases a book and instead of the misery memoir you might expect, it is a story of survival

By Nicole Lampert

2 min read

Freed: Sharabi (centre) with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Polish President Karol Nawrocki after his release from Hamas captivity

Never Again by Jake Wallis Simons review: ‘A book for our times’

The author’s new work superbly distils the issues facing the West

By Stephen Pollard

4 min read

Prescient: Jake Wallis Simons

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

By David Bennun

3 min read

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

My novel addresses British antisemitism – and that feels rather scary, right now

Leon Craig on publishing her debut in what feels an increasingly hostile literary landscape

4 min read

The author and the cover of her debut novel

Children’s books: The season’s new titles for tots, teens and those in between

From marvellous mucoid humour to a madcap fairy tale, here is the best new fiction for kids

By Angela Kiverstein

1 min read

Children’s books: The season’s new titles for tots, teens and those in between

Woody Allen’s first novel has been worth the wait

The filmmaker’s debut is as Jewish as can be and a wonderful evocation of New York

By David Herman

2 min read

Woody Allen’s first novel has been worth the wait

The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland review: ‘a beautifully constructed book’

He tells the story of the courageous groups of Germans who risked their lives to defy Hitler with all the flair of the seasoned thriller writer that he is

2 min read

The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland review: ‘a beautifully constructed book’

Prev

1 2...63

Become a member

About us
Advertising
Archive
Our Team
Cookies

Write a letter to the editor
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Corrections and Complaints