Chabon received the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
His latest bestseller, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, is a hardboiled detective novel set in an alternate world,
where the State of Israel never materialized and millions of European Jewish refugees took shelter in Alaska,
creating a miniature American Yiddishland. Always an engaging, provocative speaker, Chabon speaks about the
visceral power of memory and his own long journey as a writer and Jew in search of identity.
"Michael Chabon can write like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader with their beauty and their style." - The New York Times
Michael Chabon will sign books from Noon - 12:30 pm in the Pottruck Family Atrium.
Breakout Sessions
Session I: Sunday, November 4, 2007 12:45 - 2:00 pm (All Session I authors will sign books from 2:00 - 2:15 pm in the Pottruck Family Atrium)
Steve Almond (Not That You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions
Pleasure-obsessed, self-deprecating, horny, hilarious and always dedicated to parsing the messy terrain of the
human heart, Steve Almond's New York Times bestselling stories (The Evil B.B. Chow and Candyfreak) are always
intensely and refreshingly personal.
"Taunting, revealing, irreverent and earnest, (Not that You Asked) is ... readable and engrossing-a map of one man's disasters, with undeniable appeal for rubberneckers." - The New York Times
Shalom Auslander Foreskin's Lament
Auslander's outrageous, hysterical memoir is a dialogue with an ultra-orthodox God he views as the
physically abusive deity who brought His Chosen People out of Egypt to torture them with non-kosher Slim Jims.
"Even at his most rebellious, Portnoy-era Roth couldn't hold a candle to Shalom Auslander... Beneath the extremely funny shtick is one ferociously angry book." - Entertainment Weekly
"In his corrosively funny memoir...Auslander claims he is a foreskin: singled out, cut off and cast forth. In reality, he is something much more Jewish, almost essentially so. He's an apikores, a heretic.... It is nothing less than a portrait of the artist with a cheeseburger and fries." - The Forward
Vasily Grossman A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945
With David Bezmozgis, Olga Andreyev Carlisle and Lara Vapnyar. Moderated by KQED's Michael Krasny.
A Writer at War depicts in vivid detail what Grossman (1905-64) called "the ruthless truth of war" - the brutal
street fighting in Stalingrad, the defense of Moscow, the battles in Ukraine, the atrocities at Treblinka and
more. Bezmozgis, author of Natasha and Other Stories, and Vapnyar (Memoirs of a Muse, There are Jews in My House)
pay tribute to Grossman and discuss his impact on their work. Carlisle, granddaughter of Leonid Andreyev and
translator of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Boris Pasternak, describes the conditions and times in which Vasily
Grossman lived.
Program Note: David Bezmozgis, Lara Vapnyar and Olga Carlisle on Vasily Grossman. Michael Krasny moderates.
"Overwhelmingly powerful. [Grossman's] combination of passion and detail, of patriotic fervor and journalistic objectivity, makes A Writer at War one of the greatest documents of World War II." - The New York Sun
Sophie Judah Dropped from Heaven
Judah's fiction debut is about everyday life within the little-known Jewish community of Bene-Israel in
India, over the course of more than a century. Born in India in 1949, she immigrated to Israel in 1973.
"[This] debut collection spotlighting the little-known but centuries-old culture of the Bene Israel community in the authors native India [is] a fascinating mix of the exotic and the familiar." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism
Kaye/Kantrowitz exposes and challenges the common assumptions about who and what Jews are, by presenting
in their own voices Jews of color from the Iberian Peninsula, Asia and Africa.
"Kaye/Kantrowitz is a courageous activist and thinker and her invigorating, illuminating book does what all great political writing should do--it refreshes your mind and spirit by effectively discombobulating habitual complacencies, and re-acquaints you with the world." - Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America
Michael Krasny Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life
KQED Radio's Michael Krasny is one of the country's leading interviewers of literary luminaries. Forum fans
and lovers of literature will be riveted by the insightful and amusing vignettes and behind-the-scenes accounts.
"Michael Krasny is a Bay Area treasure who is nationally recognized for his insightful broadcast journalism. He consistently offers his audience both political wisdom and journalistic excellence." - Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
"There are radio hosts who have programs you look to participate in. They are few in number, but Michael Krasny is certainly in that category." - Norman Mailer
Dalia Sofer The Septembers of Shiraz
Forced to flee post-revolutionary Iran at the age of ten after her own father was unjustly imprisoned, Dalia
Sofer describes her family's experiences in this moving, semiautobiographical debut novel. Sofer's dramatization
of post-revolutionary Iran captures the tension and brutality imposed upon a Jewish family living amidst growing
Muslim fanaticism.
"A remarkable debut...richly evocative, powerfully affecting...as beautiful and delicate as a book about suffering can be." - Claire Messud, New York Times Book Review
"Dalia Sofer's debut novel marks itself out as extraordinary...an impressive debut." - Wall Street Journal
Dan Ben-Amos Folktales of the Jews: Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion and Tales from Eastern Europe
The folktale narratives collected and edited by Professor Ben-Amos (University of Pennsylvania) represent
more than 20,000 tales from newly arrived immigrants in Israel, many from communities that no longer exist
as cohesive societies in their representative lands. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award, his two-volume
set is a monument to a rich but vanishing oral tradition.
Winner, 2006 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD in the Sephardic Culture category
Finalist, 2006 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD in the Scholarship category
One of only 28 titles chosen in 2007 by The Association of University Press Publishers as "The Best of the Best: Books You Should Know About."
Ehud Havazelet Bearing the Body
A haunting debut novel about a father's shattered relationship with his two grown sons - one living, one
very recently dead - and a brother's efforts to understand the mystery of his sibling's death. Havazelet
treats painful subjects - the death of an infant, the Holocaust, drug addiction - with wrenching understatement.
A portrait of people bearing the weight of their family history.
"Bearing the Body is an ambitious novel driven by a wonderfully talented writers sense of history, coupled with a deep compassion for his characters, every one of which is rendered fully and with great wisdom." - Richard Russo
"Havazelet writes with a kind of anatomical precision, his scalpel slicing at his characters to expose the dark reality beneath ... The realization of a striking talent." - Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
Reva Mann The Rabbi's Daughter: A True Story of Sex, Drugs and Orthodoxy
Reva Mann has spent most of her life zigzagging between promiscuity and intense religious devotion. The
granddaughter of a chief rabbi of Israel and the daughter of a renowned London rabbi, Reva rebelled by
getting into rampant drug-fuelled sex with junkies. Then she swung to the other extreme, immersing herself
in the highly regulated life of an ultra-orthodox wife in a Hasidic enclave in Jerusalem. Eventually, she
found her way, somewhere in between "the sinful and the sacred, the religious and the profane." An eye-opening
glimpse into the cloistered world of the ultra-Orthodox and a deeply personal rumination on identity, faith,
and self-acceptance, Reva Mann's chronicle of a journey toward redemption is an unforgettable read.
"A gripping tale of a woman searching in all the wrong places ... the book is hard is put down - it's so personal and raw." - The Sunday Times Magazine
"The mantra of sexndrugsnrocknroll might have been coined for Reva Mann ... the book at times makes one gasp aloud. She has done a service by opening a window on the strictly Orthodox world." - The Jewish Chronicle
Alessandro Piperno The Worst Intentions
An audacious, sumptuous saga about ritual and liberty, love and war, sex and betrayal, set in the opulent
neighborhoods of contemporary Rome and starring an outlandish Jewish-Italian family. This very bitter,
very funny, prize-winning bestseller establishes its author as one of the most promising, and already
fulfilling young novelists of Italy.
"A resounding success! Im telling everyone they must read it." - Gad Lerner, Vanity Fair
"Sumptuous, comic, tragic, miraculously and admirably uncertain throughout, whether it is tragedy or parody." - Corriere della Sera
Victoria Redel The Border of Truth
By the critically acclaimed author of Loverboy, The Border of Truth balances the weight of a Holocaust
survivor's life upon his only daughter, as she tries to discover the truth behind his vow of silence.
Inspired by a true World War II incident, Redel's rich, multilayered story begins on the refugee ship
Quanza, which in September 1940 was allowed only to refuel in Virginia before being turned away to
search elsewhere for a haven from Nazi persecution.
Named a Barnes and Nobles Discovery Selection
"The family mystery builds to a climax, the revelations of love, guilt, betrayal, loss, and denial are haunting," - Booklist
Michael Wex Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)
Translator, novelist and performer Michael Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with this colorful,
uncensored guide to the idiomatic use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, driving, mob Yiddish, insults and
thirteen designations for the human rear (in declining order of politeness). This is definitely not your bubbe's -
or Leo Rosten's - Yiddish!
"Wise, witty and altogether wonderful...Mr. Wex has perfect pitch." - William Grimes, The New York Times
Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited
Identical Strangers is the story of two women coming to terms with the hand fate has dealt them and an account
that provides insight into our own DNA and the imprint it leaves on our lives. This memoir documents two
life-changing pieces of news: the discovery of an identical twin sister separated since infancy and their
participation in a secret study on separated twins.
"A transfixing memoir." - Publishers Weekly
"Fascinating ... An intelligent exploration of how identity intersects with bloodlines. A must-read for anybody interested in what it means to be a family." - Bust
Joseph Epstein In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage
From the author of Snobbery and Friendship, comes his largest collection yet of memories, polemics,
literary criticisms and amused observations of contemporary culture. The volume incudes essays about his
father, examinations of writers from Paul Valéry to Truman Capote, and take-downs of such cultural icons as
Harold Bloom and George Steiner.
"As is proper for a talented teacher and essayist, [Epstein] is wonderfully opinionated. He hates 'public intellectuals' and turgid writing. He's a guileless snob, an Anglophile and a bit of a Francophile too, with a trace of Yiddishkeit. Anyone who quotes [Max] Bialystock instead of Derrida is our kind of guy. Who says fun has to be brainless?" - Kirkus Reviews
Vanessa L. Ochs Inventing Jewish Ritual
Virtual prayer? Divorce ceremonies? Torah Yoga? These are just a few of the bold new Jewish rituals that
have emerged in the United States at the turn of the 21st century. Where do these rituals come from?
Who has the authority to create them? Are they really Jewish?
"...a wonderful read, especially if one is an egalitarian Jew. Her passionate feminism comes through clearly, as does her pride in being Jewish. The two play together brilliantly." - Edgar Bronfman
"Reading Inventing Jewish Ritual did precisely what any good ritual should ...it enchanted, delighted, destabilized, anchored, challenged and charmed...a must read for anyone who wants to know how ritual works to make us wiser and more compassionate and wants to reimagine life as the most profound ritual of all." - Rabbi Irwin Kula
James Sturm James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems
An American trilogy of religious fervor, greed and entertainment by the Eisner Award-winning author and
leading graphic novelist, James Sturm's America draws a portrait of pioneers searching for a place to call
home, ghost towns gutted by greed and racism, and the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment.
"Sturm's prose is as elegantly understated as his line work. And every now and then he throws the heater: 'They've been waiting for their Messiah a thousand years,' says one opponent. 'So they know how to wait on a curveball." - Entertainment Weekly
"Luminous ... The revival, as Sturm gleaned through careful research, offered an oasis of companionship, entertainment and brief salvation from the land itself. One can see how Americans ... would have yearned for a message that this dangerous, lonely place was actually part of some divine plan." - The New York Times Book Review
"Employing thick lines, minimal detail and simple prose storytelling, Sturm gracefully summons the seedy, often dangerous baseball world of the 1920s." - The Washington Post
Lara Vapnyar Memoirs of a Muse
Join noted émigré author Lara Vapnyar for a lively talk about her work. Vapnyar emigrated from Russia to
New York in 1994 and began publishing short stories in English in 2002. She is the author of Memoirs of a
Muse and There are Jews in My House and a contributor to The New Yorker.
Program Note: The program will be conducted in Russian.
"...[Vapnyar's] stories [are] a bit like what it might have been like to look over Tolstoy's shoulder while he examined a blade of grass, then another. In Vapnyar's fiction, details jut, simple and bright, until they pose a world." - Chicago Tribune
"Shot through with coolly rendered details of exquisite beauty ... Relish this small gem and hope for more." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Prepare yourself for radiance." - New York Observer
Closing Session: Meir Shalev
Sunday, November 4, 2007 5:15 - 6:15 pm
Israel's most celebrated author is renowned for his ability to create fantastic worlds in which nostalgia,
secular biblical imagery, social consciousness and fantasy are magically fused. His sixth novel, A Pigeon
and a Boy, is a captivating tale of wandering passion and the return home.
"[A] stunning tale ... This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel's Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death." - The New York Times Book Review
Pre-registration is required. Please contact the JCCSF Box Office at 415.292.1233 or e-mail arts@jccsf.org.
Meir Shalev will sign books from 6:15 - 6:30 pm in the Pottruck Family Atrium.
Presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco, the Israel Center of the
Jewish Community Federation and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University.
SF Jewish BookFest 2007 is presented in partnership with:
Academic Consortium
Bay Area Jewish Coalition for Literacy
Bureau of Jewish Education Jewish Community Library
Congregation Beth Sholom
Congregation Emanu-El
Congregation Sherith Israel
Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
Graduate Theological Union
Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation
Jewish Community Relations Council
Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley
Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa
Lehrhaus Judaica
Northern California Holocaust Center
Progressive Jewish Alliance
San Francisco Chapter of Hadassah
Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University
Sunday, November 4, 2007
11:00 am - 6:30 pm
All author events are free and open to the public.
The Booksmith Onsite Bookstore:
Sunday, November 4 - Monday, November 5, 2007
10:30 am - 7:00 pm
Would you like to volunteer for BookFest?
We need 10-12 people to help with greeting and directing authors to their rooms. There are three shifts: Noon - 2 pm,
2:00 - 3:30 pm and 3:30 - 5:30 pm on Sunday, November 4. Please contact Alice Galoob at 415.276.1515.
Drop-in childcare available: 10:00 am - 6:30 pm
Drop-in childcare for children ages 2 and older from 10:00 am - 6:30 pm in the Teen Center (Club 18). Reservations
are not required, but are appreciated. For more information and rates please call 415.292.1299, ext. 1146.
Children's Book Drive
Please bring your second-hand books and pick up new ones on Sunday, November 4. Proceeds go to local
youth, from pre-kindergarten through third grade. Donation bins are located in JCCSF main lobby.
Don't Forget!
Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour. Sunday, November 4 is also the end of Daylight Saving Time.
Save the date!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Stay tuned for BookFest 2008 at the JCCSF
featuring David Grossman and Etgar Keret.
Entire Schedule
Sunday, November 4, 2007
11:00 am - 6:30 pm
Don't miss this all-star lineup! Meet the hottest authors
of new books of Jewish interest. Spend your day
immersed in provocative panel discussions, conversations,
lectures and book signings with literary friends and
renowned authors. Bring your family to enjoy a special
children's area with Jewish books and storytelling.
All author events are free and open to the public.
Kanbar Hall
Beit Midrash Room 209
Fisher Family Hall West
Fisher Family Hall East
Gallanter Hall Room 206
10:30 am - 7:00 pm
Booksmith Onsite Bookstore in the Pottruck Family Atrium
