Simone Zelitch

"On April 4th, 1948 the sovereign state of Judenstaat was created in the territory of Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. She is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Hans, a Saxon, shot by a sniper as he conducted the National Symphony. With the grief always fresh, Judit lives a half-life, until confronted by a mysterious, flesh-and-blood ghost from her past who leaves her controversial footage on one of Judenstaat's founding fathers--and a note: "They lied about the murder.""--

A Novel

Judenstaat

Simone Zelitch's Judenstaat is a shocking alternate history. On April 4th, 1948, the sovereign state of Judenstaat was created in the territory of Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union. Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. She is confronted by a mysterious, flesh-and-blood ghost from her past who leaves her controversial footage on one of Judenstaat's founding fathers. Judit's research into the footage, and what really happened to Hans, embroils her in controversy and conspiracy, collective memory and national amnesia, and provides her with answers far more horrific than she imagined. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This award-winning novel takes readers to postwar Israel, introducing them to a mother and daughter-in-law with an unusual relationship and offering a unique perspective on Jewish identity and experience.

Louisa

Ursula LeGuin said about this book: "In most novels about the Middle Ages, the deck is all face cards. Jack Straw is rare and admirable in its uncompromising, unpatronizing identification with a peasant--an intelligent, vulnerable man caught up in the dream of equality that flared into the Peasant Revolt. The novel lets the reader stand at that crossroads of politics and mysticism and see 1776, 1848, 1917, Tiananment Square--the same dream, the same betrayal. A very moving, honest book." Kirkus Reviews: "A fast-paced, intriguing account of the failed Peasant Revolt in 14th Century England: First-novelist Zelitch provides a rendering that is evocative and plausible as well as convincing in its historical sweep...Zelitch offers a satisfying variety of incident, with enough texture and historical detail--costume, festivity, songs--to evoke the medieval milieu. The Middle Ages are rendered not on silver plattersor thrones but on the dusty roads and straw beds of peasants, who are given center stage here, not limited to comic relief." The Confession of Jack Straw won the Hopwood Award for Major Fiction.

Simone Zelitch

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