SHINY NEW BOOKS THAT MAKE
GREAT GIFTS FOR THE HOLIDAY
LIZ SPIKOL | JE STAFF
There are so many good books out
right now, and coming out in the
next few months, that it’s almost
impossible to pick just a few —
especially with so many fantastically
talented Jewish authors.

The Heavy Hitters
Some of the biggest names in contemporary
fiction — both in the U.S. and in Israel —
have new books out all at the same time, only
one of which is in paperback. That’s OK,
though: Hardbacks make better gifts anyway.

Easier to wrap.

Start with the latest from Jonathan Lethem
(Motherless Brooklyn; Fortress of Solitude),
whose new book, A Gambler’s Anatomy: A
Novel, tells the suspenseful story of Bruno
Alexander, a backgammon hustler who travels
the world from Berlin to Berkeley with his
parasitic manager. Vogue called the novel
“delightfully weird,” which is sort of Lethem’s
M.O., while the Chicago Tribune described it as
a “strange and wondrous” act of channeling
Thomas Pynchon and Ian Fleming.

If you want to get more serious, try the
newest from Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael
Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier
and Clay; The Yiddish Policemen’s Union).

Moonglow: A Novel is based on an experience
from Chabon’s own life, when he visited his
grandfather on his deathbed in Pittsburgh.

Here, the unnamed grandson hears stories of
his grandfather’s life, from early 20th-century
Jewish South Philly to a penal colony in upstate
New York to a retirement home in Florida.

Obsessed with spaceships, World War II and
postwar, posttraumatic survival, Moonglow
was named by Amazon Best Book of
November 2016, whose reviewer called it “an
intensely personal story uplifted by the shifting
22 NOVEMBER 24, 2016
WINTER HOLIDAY MAGAZINE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM