Fiction - K

In this section we'll keep you up to date with news of books you might be interested in. The information will come from the publishers' website and we will add our reviews as often as we can.

Do also look out for events information and keep us posted if you are an organiser.

And remember, feedback is always welcome.

Adam Resurrected

Yoram Kaniuk

Atlantic Books ISBN 9781843549543

December 2008

This paperback is the film tie-in edition to the much-anticipated major motion picture starring Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe:Adam Resurrected.

Adam Stein, a former circus clown who was spared the gas chamber so that he might entertain thousands of other Jews as they marched to their deaths, is now the ringleader at an asylum in the Negev desert populated solely by Holocaust survivors.Alternately more brilliant than the doctors and more insane than any of the patients, Adam struggles wildly to make sense of a world in which the line has been irreversibly blurred between sanity and madness.

With the biting irony of Catch-22, the intellectual vigor of Saul Bellow, and the pathos and humanity that are Kaniuk's hallmarks, Adam Resurrected offers a vision of a modern hell that devastates even as it inches toward redemption.

Yoram Kanium was born in Tel Aviv in 1930 and took part in Israel's War of Independence in 1948. His books have been translated into twenty languages and have earned him the Bialik Prize, the French Prix de Droits de l'Homme, and the Israeli President's Prize.

Let it Be Morning

Sayed Kashua

Atlantic Books ISBN 9781843545439 

A young journalist, recently married with a young child, is seeking a quieter life away from the city and has bought a large new home in his parent's hometown. It's a complicated return - his wife hates his parents - but they are also moving back to live in an Arab village in Israel. Nothing is as they remember: everything is smaller, the people petty and provincial and the villagers divided between sympathy for the Palestinians and dependence on the Israelis. Suddenly and shockingly, the village becomes a pawn in the never-ending power struggles of the Middle East. When Israeli tanks surround the village without warning or explanation, everyone inside is cut off from the outside world. As the situation grows increasingly dire, paranoia begins to threaten the community's fragile equilibrium, forcing the hero to decide what it means to be human in an inhuman situation.

This is a gripping read with a chilling ending. A must read for anyone trying to understand Israeli politics from another perspective. Thought provoking and a must read. GDA

Closing the Sea

Yehudit Katzir

Toby Press ISBN 1-59264-157-1

March 2006

Dreams, memories, cinematic reality and a fertile imagination all feature in Yehudit Katzir’s four novellas that comprise this volume. In Schlaff stunde, the author describes her first love, who is her cousin. Fellini’s Shoes tells of a hotel waitress who dreams of becoming a movie star, who believes she can make her dream come true with the help of a failed director who once met Fellini. Disneyel is a daughter’s monologue to her unconscious mother who is lying in a hospital bed. Closing the Sea tells the story of a mousy teacher who goes to Tel Aviv to meet a successful childhood friend only to be disappointed by the friend’s apathy. When the sweet fantasy bursts, she is left with her memories.

Born in Haifa in 1963, Yehudit Katzir studied literature and cinema at Tel Aviv University. At present, she works as an editor for Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Siman Kriah Publishing House and teaches creative writing. Katzir, a bestselling author in Israel, has published two collections of stories and novellas, two novels and two children`s books. In addition to literary prizes for individual stories, Katzir has received the Book Publishers` Association`s Platinum and Gold Book Prizes, the Prime Minister`s Prize (1996), and the French WIZO Prize for Matisse Has the Sun in His Belly (2004).

The Death of the Adversary

Hans Keilson

Ivo Jarosy

Vintage Classics 9780099560623

May 2011

First published in English in 1962 (and in Germany in 1959), The Death of the Adversary is now back in print almost half a century later. Within six weeks of being published in the US last year, the novel sold 30,000 copies, becoming a New York Times bestseller. A semi-autobiographical account of life under Nazi-occupied Europe, The Death of the Adversary was written whilst Keilson was in hiding during 1942 and the pages then buried in his garden for safekeeping for the duration of World War II. It is an affecting account of what he outlived. Keilson’s first novel, Life Goes On, was accepted for publication just before his twenty-third birthday in 1933 and was the last novel that Fischer Verlag was allowed to publish by a Jewish writer before the Nuremberg race laws came in to effect.
The Death of the Adversary is a portrait of a young man helplessly fascinated by an unnamed ‘adversary’ whom he watches rise to power in 1930s Germany. It is implicit – though never stated – that our narrator is Jewish and his adversary is Adolf Hitler. Like Suite Française, the novel captures firsthand the minutiae of fear, anger, denial and
perseverance that accompany life under the shadow of tyranny. The Death of the Adversary is also a tale of horror, not only in its evocation of Hitler’s gathering menace but also in its hero’s desperate attempt to discover logic where none exists.

Born in Germany in 1909, Hans Keilson finished medical school just as laws against Jewish doctors came into force. He published his first novel in 1933. By 1934 the novel was banned. His editor warned him to get out of the country and Keilson emigrated to the Netherlands in 1936.
In mid 1943 Keilson went into hiding, began to write The Death of the Adversary and joined the Dutch Resistance. His parents were killed in Auschwitz. After the war, as a psychiatrist in the Netherlands, Keilson pioneered the treatment of war trauma in children. In 2008 he received the Die Welt Literature Prize. Hans Keilson sadly passed away on 31 May 2011 at the age of 101.

Fifty is not a Four-Letter Word

Linda Kelsey

Hodder & Stoughton ISBN : 9780340933398  

August 2007

Life begins at fifty…

Well, it certainly does for Hope, though not at all as she had planned. She reluctantly hits her half-century on New Year`s Day and six months later she has lost her job, her husband and her mother.

But Hope has guts – and a sense of humour. By the time she reaches fifty-one, she has acquired a taste for designer underwear, a Labrador puppy – and the memory of one perfect night in Paris. Who says fifty is over the hill?

Linda Kelsey is a former editor of Cosmopolitan and SHE, and was twice awarded Editor of the Year. She was also launch editor of Wedding Day and Executive Editor on the launch of In Style. She is now a freelance journalist and Contributing Editor to In Style and Easy Living magazines, writing on travel and books as well as general features. Her work appears regularly in a variety of magazines and newspapers ranging from Brides and Saga to the Daily Mail and Jewish Chronicle. In 2002 she wrote Was It Good For You, Too? 30 Years of Cosmpolitan (Robson Books). She lives in London with her husband and son.

Schindler's Ark

Thomas Keneally

Sceptre ISBN 9780340936290

In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy.

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door

Etgar Keret

Chatto ISBN 9780701186678

February 2012

Etgar Keret is an ingenious and original master of the short story. Hilarious, witty and always unusual, declared a 'genius' by the New York Times, Keret brings all of his prodigious talent to bear in this, his sixth bestselling collection.

Long a household name in Israel, where he has been declared the voice of his generation, Keret has been acknowledged as one of the country's most radical and extraordinary writers. Exuding a rare combination of depth and accessibility, Keret's tales overflow with absurdity, humour, longing and compassion, and though their circumstances are often strange and surreal, his characters are defined by a familiar and fierce humanity. A man barges into a writer's house and, holding a gun to his head, demands that he tell him a story, something to take him away from the real world. A pathological liar discovers one day that all the lies he tells come true. A young woman finds a zip in her boyfriend's mouth, and when she opens it he unfolds to reveal a completely different man inside. Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is at once Keret's most mature and most playful work yet, and establishes him as one of the great international writers of our time.

Kneller's Happy Campers

Etgar Keret

Vintage ISBN 9780701184315

A strange, dark but funny tale set in a world very much like our own but it's an afterlife populated by people who have killed themselves - many of them are young, and most of them bear the marks of their death...bullet wounds, broken necks...(those who have over-dosed are known as 'Juliets'). Mordy, our hero, discovers that his girlfriend from his life before has also 'offed' herself so he sets out to find her, and so follows a strange adventure...Full of the weird and wonderful characters, and the slightly surreal twist of events that we've come to expect from Etgar Keret, this novella is full of humour and comic flashes, but it is also wistful, longing for a better world and perfect love.

The Nimrod Flip-Out

Vintage ISBN 9780099497226 

In this collection of bite-sized satiric tales, Israeli author Etgar Keret chronicles the strange ironies that suffuse his characters' lives. A man goes to bed each night with his beautiful girlfriend, only to find himself five minutes later lying next to a short fat guy who watches sport; a faithful dog refuses to disappear, even after being shot; a little girl covets the glittery eyes of her schoolfriend; a man is surprised by a middle-eastern pessimistic talking fish; a daemon makes a living from repossessing young writers' talents.

In stories as painfully funny as they are brief, Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain, confirming his status as both Israel's bestselling young writer and new national conscience.

Missing Kissinger

Chatto & Windus ISBN 9780701179908

A magician tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but takes out only its head; a guy brings a girl home with him for the first time only to find that his best friend has pissed on his doorstep; a young man graduates from Magician School but soon discovers that he can't do everything; two drunk students do battle with a pavement and win; someone has a mother and a girlfriend who hate each other's guts, and they both demand that he gives them the other one's heart... many of the characters in these stories are waiting for something to change their lives, many of them can't quite reach ultimate happiness, some of them are sick, some are abandoned, and most have trouble communicating. The unexpected can, and usual does, happen.

Etgar Keret's stories are very short - and every word counts. They are quick, brief and precise, and they move us without hesitation. They are hilarious and off-the-wall, yet also dark, sometimes violent, and often intensely poignant. They are, in short, brilliant.

The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Mystery

Philip Kerr

Quercus ISBN 9781847241351

July 2007

Bernie Gunther, the iconoclastic private-eye, is the ideal narrator for Philip Kerr’s bleak tale of the dirty deals made by victors and vanquished alike in post-war Germany.
Having learned that there’s no way to distinguish ‘the one from the other’, the cynical P.I. has the moral clarity to see through the deceit and hypocrisy of both friend and foe.
Munich, 1949: Amid the chaos of defeat, it’s a place of dirty deals, rampant greed, fleeing war criminals, and all the backstabbing intrigue that prospers in the aftermath of war. A place where a private eye can find a lot of not-quite-reputable work: cleaning up
the Nazi past of well-to-do locals, abetting fugitives in the flight abroad, sorting out rival
claims to stolen goods. It’s work that fills Bernie with disgust – but it also fills his sorely
depleted wallet. Then a woman seeks him out. Her husband has disappeared. She’s
not looking to get him back – he’s a wanted man who ran one of the most vicious
concentration camps in Poland. She just wants confirmation that he’s dead.

It’s a simple enough job. But in post-war Germany, nothing is simple…

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh and went on to study at the University of Birmingham.
He has written three other Bernie Gunther books and a book for children, entitled
Children of the Lamp. He lives in London and Cornwall. He is currently working on a new Bernie Gunther novel.

The Attack

Yasmina Khadra

Translated from the French by John Cullen

Vintage ISBN 9780099499275 

Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Israeli Arab, is a surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. Dedicated to his work, respected and admired by his colleagues and community, he represents integration at its most successful. He has learned to live with the violence and chaos that plague his city, and on the night of a deadly bombing in a local restaurant, he works tirelessly to help the shocked and shattered patients brought to the emergency room. But this night of turmoil and death takes a horrifyingly personal turn. His wife’s body is found among the dead, with massive injuries, the police coldly announce, typical of those found on the bodies of fundamentalist suicide bombers. As evidence mounts that his wife, Sihem, was responsible for the catastrophic bombing, Dr. Jaafari is torn between cherished memories of their years together and the inescapable realization that the beautiful, intelligent, thoroughly modern woman he loved had a life far removed from their comfortable, assimilated existence together.

From the graphic, shocking description of the bombing that opens the novel to its searing conclusion, The Attack portrays the reality of terrorism and its incalculable spiritual costs. Intense and humane, devoid of political bias, hatred, and polemic, intensely thoughtful, sensitive and felt, it displays a profound understanding of what can seem impossible to understand.

This is a fascinating read, disturbing at times, but highly recommended. Yasmina Khadra, his real name Mohammed Moulessehoul, a former high ranking officer in the Algerian army, in charge of fighting terrorism, is exploring Muslim fanaticism. He casts a different light on a complex and frightening situation. Geraldine D’Amico

Lunar Eclipse

Alona Kimchi

Translated from the Hebrew by Yael Lotan

Toby Press ISBN 9781902881294

April 2000

The five stories explore the self-destructive streaks of her subjects: a young married couple, sinking into boredom; a young girl in a Russian immigrant family suffers from her step-father's hostility; a Tel Aviv journalist infects his lover with Aids; an intelligent young woman tells her life story as an inmate in a psychiatric hospital; a successful fashion photographer, working between bouts of bulimia and self-mortification. Kimchi's characters talk about themselves in an idiomatic, uninhibited language, sometimes coarse, sometimes violent. The rough force of these stories and their protagonists assign the author a very distinctive place in Israeli literature today.

Seven Days to the Sea

Rebecca Kohn

Michael Joseph ISBN: 9780141020518

In the bestselling tradition of The Red Tent comes a novel about Moses' flight from Egypt.

The acclaimed author of The Gilded Chamber has written an enchanting novel about the Exodus, narrated by Miryam, the sister of Moses, and by his lover, Tzipporah. These two women weave an intricate and unforgettable tale of love, envy, selflessness and devotion, all of it revolving around one, exceptional man.

But could Moses have become the inspirational leader he was without these women at his side? Rebecca Kohn takes one of the best-loved episodes from the Bible and brings it startlingly to life. Miryam and Tzipporah tell a story that will make you laugh and cry, that will uplift and entrance you from first page to last.

The Odyssey of Samuel Glass

Bernard Kops

David Paul ISBN 9780954848286 

February 2012

A coming-of-age story by a master of storytelling on the need to love and cherish life and grab it by the drosky’s reins. This is Kops at his most irrepressible and irreverent, vibrant and lyrical and connected – to the present and the past. 

“Do the dead know that life still exists, somewhere?” These thoughts were bugging him, piercing and twisting around in his brain. Then he came back down to the Elysian slopes of Muswell Hill ....” 

Seventeen-year-old Sam Glass is depressed. Since his father died suddenly, he sees no point in life especially not among the cosy middle class environs where his love of quoting from classical literature falls on deaf ears. Then a strange figure appears who claims to be a rabbi from the Middle Ages, who takes Sam back in time to the Russia of 1881. He meets a panoply of characters including his own forebears and some familiar figures from Jewish history. Then he discovers the secret purpose for which he has been chosen -- to assassinate Tsar Alexander II ……

Tour de force by the ageless Bernard Kops. His eighth novel.

“I know of few writer-prophets as undeservedly unhonoured in their country as the extraordinarily prolific playwright, novelist, autobiographer, poet and teacher Bernard Kops.”  Michael Horovitz, Jewish Chronicle

The Painted Bird

Jerzy Kosinski

Grove Press 9780802134226

A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned by his parents during World War II, this classic novel, originally published in 1965, is a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love. It is the first, and the most famous, novel by one of the most important and original writers of this century.

One More Year

Sana Krasikov

Portobello ISBN 9781846271779

June 2009

Winner of the 2009 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

The protagonists of Sana Krasikov’s indelible stories are mostly women – some of them are new to America; some still live in the former Soviet Union, in Georgia or Russia; and some have returned to Russia to find a country they barely recognize and people they no longer understand. Mothers leave children behind; children abandon their parents. Almost all of them look to love to repair their lives, and when love isn’t really there, they attempt to make do with a paler, lighter imitation of it, with substitutes for love.

Sana Krasikov was born in the Ukraine and grew up in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and in the United States. Her debut collection, One More Year, was named a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Hemingway Award and The New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. It received a National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" Award. She is the recipient of an O.Henry Award, a Fulbright Scholarship, and a National Magazine Award nomination. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope and elsewhere.

Great House

Nicole Krauss

Viking ISBN 9780670919321

February 2011

During the winter of 1972, a woman spends a single night with a young Chilean poet before he departs New York, leaving her his desk. It is the only time they ever meet. Two years later, he is arrested by Pinochet's secret police and never seen again. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers a lock of hair among her papers that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer has spent a lifetime reassembling his father's study, plundered by the Nazis from Budapest in 1944; now only one item remains to be found.

Connecting these lives is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away. And as the narrators of Great House make their confessions, this desk comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared.

Great House is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change?

Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss.

The History of Love

Penguin ISBN 9780141019970

2006

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction

Leo Gursky is a man who fell in love at the age of ten and has been in love ever since.  These days he is just about surviving life in America, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbour know he's still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks.  But life wasn't always like this:  sixty years ago in the Polish village where he was born Leo fell in love with a young girl called Alma and wrote a book in honour of his love.  These days he assumes that the book, and his dreams, are irretrievably lost, until one day they return to him in the form of a brown envelope.

Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the author.  Soon these and other worlds collide in The History of Love, a captivating story of the power of love, of loneliness and of survival.

Man Walks into a Room

Viking ISBN 9780141021157

March 2007

Samson Greene, a young and popular professor at Columbia University, is found wandering in the Nevada desert. When his wife, Anna, comes to take him home, she finds a man who remembers nothing, not even his own name. The removal of a small brain tumour saves his life, but his memories beyond the age of twelve are permanently lost.

Here is the story of a strikingly intelligent, sensitive man returned to a world in which everything is strange and new. An emigrant in his own life, set free from everything and everyone who once defined him. Samson believes he has nothing left to lose. So when a charismatic scientist asks him to participate in a bold experiment, Samson agrees. What he gains is nothing short of the beautifully painful revelation of what it is to be a human being.