This is the Forward’s coverage of books and literature, including both non-fictional and fictional works.
Books
The Latest
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Books Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels, From One Generation to the Next
Fans of comic books and graphic novels are mourning the death of Harvey Pekar, who died today in his Cleveland home at the age of 70. Pekar was mainly known for authoring the autobiographical series “American Splendor,” which documented his lower-middle class Jewish upbringing in Ohio. Pekar also wrote “Our Cancer Year,” after being diagnosed…
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Books Gary Shteyngart Can’t Read
Haha. Or if you’re Gary Shteyngart feigning a Russian accent in his new book trailer, it might sound more like chah-chah. Book trailers are often too long and boring: earnest author fidgeting on a Brooklyn stoop, reciting the plot of her novel. You’re watching it thinking, “Stop telling me what happens. That’s what your book…
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Books YIVO Encyclopedia Launches Online Edition
Geese were a staple of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and Jewish women knew how to get the most out of their fowl of choice. The feathers were sold as quills for writing and stuffing for bedding, fat used as an alternative to butter or the Jewish version of lard, and the birds themselves were…
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Books Our Rack: Némirovsky Bio, Translated Hebrew Fiction, Advice With Lox
Non-Fiction • The newly translated “The Life of Irène Némirovsky: 1903-1942,” (Knopf) by French writers Olivier Philipponnat and Patrick Lienhardt, tells the life story of the author of the posthumous bestseller “Suite Francaise.” The biography covers Némirovsky’s childhood in Russia, her adulthood in her adopted country of France, and her death at Auschwitz. Philipponnat and…
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Books Rejecting Art for Art’s Sake at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards
The New York literary scene may currently be all caught up in Book Expo America, but in Toronto a smaller literary celebration is being held tonight at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards. Among the honorees are Robin McGrath for her Newfoundland-based novel, “The Winterhouse” (Killik Press) David Sax for his book, “Save the Deli” (Houghton…
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Books South Carolina’s Franklin J. Moses: Scalawag, But No Paskudnyak?
A scalawag may be a nogoodnik or even a paskudnyak, but in the subtitle of Benjamin Ginsberg’s brisk, informed “Moses of South Carolina: A Jewish Scalawag during Radical Reconstruction” from Johns Hopkins University Press, “scalawag” has a more precise historical meaning. Applied after the Civil War to Southern whites who joined political forces with freed…
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Books Simon Monjack, Husband of the Late Brittany Murphy, Found Dead
Just nine days before his death Sunday night in his Hollywood Hills home, Simon Monjack, 40, who wed the late actress Brittany Murphy in a Jewish ceremony, was making hopeful future plans. The “Factory Girl” producer planned to go on a European vacation with Sharon Murphy, Brittany’s mother. The two had become core pillars of…
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Books Margaret Atwood Rejects Cultural Boycott of Israel
As we saw with the Batsheva Dance Company in 2009 and the Jerusalem Quartet in March, when it comes to Israel, even the most straightforward arts organizations have the potential to become the subjects of political controversy. The most recent flare-up centered around Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who accepted the Dan David Prize for literature…
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News What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein’s Childhood
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News Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex
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Politics AIPAC fails its first test in the midterms
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Fast Forward Mamdani appoints Phylisa Wisdom, progressive Jewish leader, to run Office to Combat Antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ קורס וועגן די שפּריכווערטער געזאַמלט דורך די אַנ־סקי עקספּעדיציעסA course on the Yiddish proverbs collected through the An-Ski expeditions
די ווערטלעך האָט פֿאַרשריבן דער סאָוועטישער פֿאָלקלאָריסט אַבא לעוו בעת די עקספּעדיציעס איבער וואָלין
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Opinion In Trump’s instinct to punish and desecrate, a rejection of the values of King David
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Culture Why Bad Bunny’s halftime show delighted New York Jews of a certain age
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Yiddish World Elie Wiesel as an American phenomenon and a family man
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