The longlist for the 2018 JQ (Jewish Quarterly) Wingate Prize has been announced, with “identity” singled out as this year’s overriding theme.
Twelve books have been selected, including Judas by Amos Oz, Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss and The Dark Circle by Linda Grant.
The prize, now in its 41st year, is run in association with the JW3 community centre. The winner of the £4,000 prize will be announced on February 15, 2018.
Toby Lichtig, fiction and politics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and chair of this year’s judges, described the long list as “invigorating, diverse and thought-provoking.
“The Shoah, Israel and family are recurring leitmotifs – but if there’s one overriding theme it is identity: national, cultural and psychological.
“The Jewish experience – with its long history, complex diaspora and vexed relationship with place – is perhaps particularly well-suited to current, often ugly debates about citizenship, migration and belonging.”
The JQ Wingate 2018 long list
A Land Without Borders by Nir Baram
Moving Kings by Joshua Cohen
The Mighty Franks by Michael Frank
The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others by Mya Guarnieri Jaradat
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
The Trial of Adolf Hitler by David King
Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss
Do I Belong? Reflections From Europe by Antony Lerman
Small Pieces: A Book of Lamentations by Joanne Limburg
Judas by Amos Oz
Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem by George Prochnik
The Holocaust by Laurence Rees.
