The Flame Alphabet
By Ben Marcus
In Ben Marcus's latest novel, due out in January, the United States is overrun
with a strange virus. At first, it seems exclusive to the Jewish community. But soon, it's effecting everyone. Painting an odd, sometimes screwball portrait of a society—and a family—destroyed by its confrontation
with this strange new disease, Marcus uses his book's strange narrative to reflect on human trust, love, spite, and forgiveness.
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Recently in Bookshelf...
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Bento's Sketchbook by John Berger
Making its American debut this fall, Booker Prize-winning
writer, artist, and activist John Berger's most recent book is a remarkably unorthodox work of non-fiction. Titled Bento's
Sketchbook, at its crux is a pseudo-dialogue between Berger and the long-dead 17th century Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch
“Bento” Spinoza. The book is full of oddities—presented as a melange of meditations on art, community, and
compassion. But why
Spinoza? And why a sketchbook? It's unclear. What's more certain is the beauty of Berger's style, and the profundity of his
thought.
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 The Joy of Secularism:
11 Essays for How We Live Now Edited by George Levine
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Identity
Papers: Contemporary Narratives
of American Jewishness By Helene Meyers In Identity Papers, Professor Helene Meyers revisits
commonly held assumptions about Jewish identity and Jewish difference in literature, arguing that the Jewish American literary
scene is far less "provincial" than many have supposed. Instead
of making Jewish American literature marginal, Meyers suggests that thematizing the Jewish experience in America—whether
religious, secular, or cultural—actually imbues the field with "vitality and significance."
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 Secular Faith
Edited
by Vincent W. Lloyd
and Elliot Ratzman By Yedidya Itzhaki
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