I'm celebrating the publication of my novel - The J-Word (Snowbooks, £7.99).
It's the story of an unlikely hero - an 80-year-old Yiddisher feller with a bad knee. It's set in Golders Green and is about secular Jewish identity in modern Britain.
Here's the story in a nutshell: 80-year-old Jack Silver rejects everything Jewish. But when Jack is beaten up by an antisemitic gang, he and his 10-year-old grandson Danny (who knows absolutely nothing about his own Jewish heritage) secretly set out to outwit and track down the thugs and bring them to justice – in their own way. The hunt takes Jack into memories of his own childhood and the two unlikely heroes discover a shared identity spanning generations.
Linda Grant (Orange Prize; Booker shortlist 2008) has read the book and made this comment: “A beautiful, thoughtful portrait of the anxieties and paradoxes of modern Jewish life.”
With a very different perspective, The Canada Post described it like this: “Fast-moving and thought-provoking. A thrilling read.”
If you like the sound of The J-Word, it is available from Joseph's Bookstore in Temple Fortune, Steimatzky's in Golders Green, Waterstones in Hampstead, and most other bookshops, and of course online from Amazon.
Let me know what you think of it!
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