The J-Word

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.”