Eliane Glaser is  a writer, radio producer, and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She writes on a wide range of aspects of politics and culture. She has written for the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other publications, and she speaks at academic and non-academic conferences and in the media about her ideas and research.

Her book Judaism without Jews: Philosemitism and Christian Polemic in Early Modern England was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2007. It explores the various ways in which Judaism was employed pragmatically as an argumentative token in the context of religious and political debates in 16^th and 17^th century England. The book questions the teleological narrative still present in Anglo-Jewish history, which posits Christian interest in Judaism as a precursor for Cromwell’s ‘readmission’ of the Jews to England in 1656. Judaism without Jews was one of the Jewish Chronicle’s ‘Books of the Year’. I still remember her in a very heated debate with David Cesarani at the time of the celebrations of the disputed readmission.

She is coming to Jewish Book Week to talk about her new book Get Real: How to Tell it Like it is in a World of Illusions which will be published by Fourth Estate in March 2012. It is a passionate and entertaining guide to spotting and decoding the delusions we live under – from ‘revolutionary’ plus-size models to ‘world-saving’ organic vegetables; from heavily scripted and edited ‘reality’ TV to ‘life-changing’ iPhone apps. Busting the jargon and unravelling the spin, Get Real reveals the secrets about modern life that we were never supposed to know. It’s an insider’s guide to understanding the present which puts the truth and the power to choose firmly in our hands. Only by telling it like it is can we improve – and maybe even save – our world for real.

She will discuss it with PR guru Julia Hobsbawm. Their conversation promises to be very lively! And of course we are not putting any spin on either her book or her talk!

-          If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

Idealism, and readily available good Korean food.

-          What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

Middlemarch, by George Eliot. It taught me the importance of that underrated virtue, reasonableness.

-          What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

-          What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

Studying at a (relatively liberal and trendy) yeshiva summer school in Jerusalem. Except that I spent the whole time internally ranting about how the apparent open-endedness of the ‘discussions’ was a sham.

-          What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

Hannah Arendt, The Jewish Writings

-          When did you know you would become a writer?

When I realised you were allowed to write using your real voice

-          If you were not a writer, what would you be?

Aside from attempting to save the world from political, social and environmental destruction, I’ve always fantasised about becoming a geologist, and was obsessed with collecting rocks as a child. Although at a certain point I realised that geology was actually about oil extraction and plate tectonics rather than sparkly gemstones.

-          What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

If you are anxious about something, don’t fight it. Being anxious is part of the experience. Miraculously, it stops you being anxious.

-          What would your superpower be?

The ability to relax.

-          Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

Oh, the usual German-Jewish intellectual suspects: Freud, Marx, Benjamin, Arendt. And Larry David to lighten things up a bit.

-          On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

Yes, you were a good enough mother. This way to the unlimited spa facilities.

Larry Smith is the editor of Smith magazine and creator of the hottest (and shortest) new literary form, the Six Word Memoir, The phenomena has already spawned three books including, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure and the forthcoming Oy! Only Six, Why Not More? Six Words on the Jewish Life. You can submit your own or keep an eye on the latest additions on the Smith Magazine website.

He will be taking the form out of New York City, transplanting it for one evening only at this years Jewish Book Week. The event features a brilliant line-up; Lail Arad, Shalom Auslander, Francesca Beard, David Mills and Jamie Glassman on Saturday February 25th at 9:30pm

If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?‬

Everyone would have a water view.

 ‪What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher
that made a profound impression on you?‬

My mother’s original copy of Howl.

What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?‬
Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source.

‪What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?‬
Haggled for a Christmas tree.

‪What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?‬
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
[or if you mean more about the Jewish experience, rather than just by a Jewish author, I would say Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America by Ruth Gruber]

‪When did you know you would become a writer?‬
In fourth grade.

‪If you were not a writer, what would you be?‬
Run a space that’s a combination of an old-school Russian bathhouse, home for live events and all-ages education center.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?‬
“Do one thing well,” advice given to me from my dad. He also advised:
“At an all-you-can eat buffet, don’t fill up on bread and salad.”

‪What would your superpower be?‬
Going back in time by one hour.

‪Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday
night dinner?‬
Leonard Cohen (for a song), Mario Batali (for the meal), and my Bubbie (so my wife and kid could meet her).

On the very distant day when you will make it to the other
side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?
These six words: “You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

I am particularly looking forward to Shalom Auslander’s third visit to Jewish Book Week. He came for the publication of his first book, a collection of irreverent short stories, Beware of God. You can still listen to the 2006 audio recording of his conversation with Elena Lappin and Naomi Alderman. (The first couple minutes will be a sad reminder of what JBW was like before we had a fabulous technical team brought in.)

Shalom then came back in 2008 for the publication of his autobiography – Foreskin’s Lament – at the slightly early age of 38. That time he was in conversation with the novelist AL Kennedy, a really classic moment of JBW.

He is back with us in 2012  for his first novel: Hope: A Tragedy and will this time be talking to Guardian columnist Bidisha on Sunday 26 February at  12.30 pm. I’m sure this be another unmissable session for any one equipped with a good sense of humour. And yes, Bidisha only goes by her first name and is fantastic fun, warmth and wit.

In his new novel, Shalom Auslander tells the story of a man -a neurotic father in search of the quietest place to bring up his son- who, having moved to the most boring little town in Up State New York, discovers Anne Frank is living in his attic. She is extremely old and trying to write her second book, knowing the first one sold thirty two million copies…Very tough. To make things worse, his mother lives with the family and, although she was born in 1945 and never set foot in Europe or had any relative who died in the Holocaust, has reinvented herself as a survivor, complete with screaming in the morning and very unhealthy obsessions. These is just a tiny glimpse of an extremely funny and provocative novel which, apart from making the reader laugh out loud (and trust me, it doesn’t often happen to me), raises some very serious questions.

The book is already out in the US and will be launched in the UK at JBW. I’ve put both jackets as I find the different choice of illustrations quite amazing (the slightly ridiculous little deer in the US, the wonderfully ironic dove in the UK). Shalom has already garnered some amazing comments:

“Shalom Auslander writes like some contemporary comedic Jeremiah, thundering warnings of disaster and retribution. What makes him so terrifyingly funny is that he isn’t joking.” Howard Jacobson

“A wonderful, twisted, transgressive, heartbreaking, true, and hugely funny book. It will make very many people very angry. It will also make very many people very happy.” A. L. Kennedy

“Can the darkest events of the twentieth century and of all human history be used to show the folly of hope? And can the result be so funny that you burst out laughing again and again? If you doubt this is possible, read Hope: A Tragedy. You won’t regret it.” John Gray

Here are his answers to our questions:

-  If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

Intelligent life.

- What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

A Children’s Guide to Why the World Hates You and Everything You Do Is Wrong.

- What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

Hardcover? Mine.

-  What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

What’s your hang-up with Jews? It’s weird.

-What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

Hardcover? Mine.

-  When did you know you would become a writer?

When God appeared in a burning bush and told me so, Jackass.

-  If you were not a writer, what would you be?

Rich.

-   What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

“Run.”

-  What would your superpower be?

The ability to consume vast amounts of pornography in a single degrading, loathsome evening.

-  Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

Back to the fucking Jew thing. I don’t know, Moses? Abraham? God? You tell me.

-  On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

“My bad.”

GDA

Bernard Wasserstein was born in London and has taught at Oxford, Sheffield, Jerusalem, Brandeis, and Glasgow Universities. He is now Ulrich and Harriet Meyer Professor of Modern European Jewish History at the University of Chicago. In 2011-12 he is a visiting fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in Uppsala.

He won the “Golden Dagger” Award for Non-Fiction from the Crime Writers’ Association for The Secret Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln. His books have included Secret War in Shanghai, Divided Jerusalem, and Israel and Palestine.

His next book, On the Eve: The Jews of Europe before the Second World War will be published by Profile in 2012. This is the portrait of a world on the eve of its destruction. Eschewing sentimentality, Bernard Wasserstein’s original and provocative book presents a new and disturbing interpretation of the collapse of European Jewish civilization even before the Nazi onslaught. Wasserstein demonstrates that, by 1939, the Jews faced an existential crisis that was as much the result of internal decay as of external attack.

From Vilna (the ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’) to Salonica with its Judeo-Español-speaking stevedores and singers, and from the Soviet Jewish ‘homeland’ of Birobidzhan to Amsterdam (the ‘Jerusalem of the west’), the book explores the mindsets of wealthy bankers and far-left revolutionaries, of ultra-orthodox yeshiva bokhers and militant atheists, of cultural revivalists and radical assimilationists.

While portraying the predicament of the Jews in a continent suffused with anti-Semitism, the book’s focus is squarely on the Jews themselves rather than their persecutors. Written with compassion and empathy, based on vast research, and enlivened by dry wit, On the Eve paints a vivid and shocking picture of the European Jews in their final hour.

It will be launched at JBW on Tuesday 21 February at 7.00 pm before it’s available in print.

Even though the exercise did not appeal to him, he agreed to play the game and answered our interview brilliantly. We are most thankful to him.

“I am not, in general, a fan of these sorts of questionnaires, which seem to be all the rage now in publishing circles. Still a request from Jewish Book Week is a command. So weakly protesting, I succumb. Here are my answers and I hope you are satisfied. My only stipulation is that you use it all or not at all:

-       If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?  How do you know I have not already tunnelled my way out? What’s missing here is the realization that there is no there.

-       What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you? Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon (profound – and painful)

-       What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

The Song of Songs (the most worthwhile biblical book – for the sex)

-       What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done? 

Marry a non-Jewish woman (it’s a mitzvah)

-       What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem

-       When did you know you would become a writer?

In two years’ time.

-       If you were not a writer, what would you be? 

Thwarted

-       What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Think small (from John Gross)

-       What would your superpower be?

Freedonia (President Groucho Marx)

-       Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

 You, my dear

-       On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

“Your assumption was false.”"

Dubbed by Womad as ‘your next favourite singer-songwriter’, Lail Arad has a delicious voice and wry, funny lyrics about friends, exes, the internet and so much more.  2011 was spent touring her debut album ‘Someone New’ which was released on the French label Notify Music.

She’ll be at JBW on Saturday 25^th February at 9:30pm where she’ll be performing one of her songs as a Six Word Memoir alongside Shalom Auslander, David Mills, Jamie Glassman and Francesca Beard.

In the meantime you can have a listen to some of her music on her facebook page.

Here are her answers to our questions:

If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

The 25th hour of the day and the 8th day of the week.

What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe.

What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

Just Kids, Patti Smith.

What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

Matzah Ball Soup at Canter’s Deli,Los Angeles.

What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

The Book Of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden.

When did you know you would become a writer?

A songwriter, at 18. I’ve yet to publish anything that can’t fit on a napkin.

 If you were not a writer, what would you be?

It’s probably too late for Roller-Skating Champion. I’d like to be a student again.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Nothing is as bad as it seems, nothing is as good as it seems (Father Ron)

[that’s  her father, designer, Ron Arad, rather than a priest called Ron]

What would your superpower be?

An in-built GPS.

Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

My J-idols: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell and Jonathan Richman. But it would be a Thursday.

On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

“Let’s twist again, like we did last summer”

Picture Credit: Lisa Roze

Chochana Boukhobza is a francophone writer who was born in Sfax, Tunisia. She left it for Paris when she was four but moved to Israel when she was 17, studying mathematics but leading a fairly wild life. Yet she couldn’t forgive the country the many wars that took too many loved ones away and eventually moved back to France. Israel remains the place she flies back to whenever she feels down.

Her nomadic life has made her into an exiled. “The difference between a foreigner and an exiled is that the exiled cannot go back. To be exiled is to be something and then to lose that identity.”

Yet she feels no nostalgia. Memories and fiction are her true home and she revisits and reinvents Israel in her work. She carries in her three languages, three cultures, layers of memories passed on to her from several generations and thousands of stories.

She is the author of nine novels, the first of which Un été à Jérusalem (A Summer in Jerusalem) won the Prix Mediterranée in 1986. Her second novel Le Cri was a finalist for the 1987 Prix Femina. She has also written several screenplays. In 2005, she co-directed a documentary Un billet aller-retour (A Return Ticket) (Barcelona-Paris Films Productions).

She is coming to JBW to discuss her first novel to be translated into English, The Third Day,  a thrilling story set in Jerusalem over three tense days in which a young musician and her mentor come from the US to give a concert. It turns out the trip forces one woman to face her decision to leave Israel, her Mizrahi parents and her friends and is an excuse for the older woman to settle her accounts with a Nazi.

Don’t miss her on Wednesday 22 February at 1.00 pm. We pride ourselves at JBW to bring you new voices. Her talent has been more than proven in France and we are delighted that she is at long last published in English. Here is her interview:

-          If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

 FREEDOM AND EQUALITY

-          What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

THE BIBLE

 

-          What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

 THE TALMUD

-          What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

TO KEEP ASKING MYSELF QUESTIONS EVERY MINUTE OF MY LIFE

 

-          What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

VASSILI GROSSMAN’S LIFE AND FATE

 

-          When did you know you would become a writer?

WHEN I UNDERSTOOD THAT LIFE IS AN EXILE

 

-          If you were not a writer, what would you be?

A MASON

 

-          What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

 GO ON

-          What would your superpower be?

THE STRENGTH TO RESIST

 

-          Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

 

-          On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

GO BACK AND TRY AGAIN

Last year, Hillel Halkin had to cancel his trip to JBW 2011 where he would have launched his highly acclaimed biography of Yehuda Halevi. This year we invited him back and I’m delighted to say he will be doing three sessions: discussing the “Poet laureate of the Jewish People” with Anthony Julius, interviewing Eli Amir whose book Yasmine he has translated and last but not least launching his first novel,  Melisande! What Are Dreams?

This is because Hillel Halkin is a scholar, a translator and now also a novelist. You can read him in the Jerusalem Post, Commentary and The New Republic on literature and Middle East politics. He is the author of several books, including the The New York Times bestselling Letters to an American-Jewish Friend: A Zionist Polemic and Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel.

Halkin translates from Hebrew and Yiddish. His version of  Sholem Aleichem’s

Yiddish masterpiece Tevye the Dairyman was the basis for the hit Broadway musical. In a recent article in Ha’aretz, he compared translating to “being the dance partner of the greatest dancer”, one of the most beautiful comparisons I’ve ever heard.

As to his novel, it seems to be quite a departure from his present scholarly life and more of a nod to his American youth. I haven’t read it yet but from our correspondance, I’m sure I will enjoy it.

 

-       If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

Escaping to another world would be impractical. My wife could never decide what clothes to take.

-          What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

My father was a Judaics scholar with over 5,000 books in his library, some 500 of which I kept when he died and the rest of which I sold, but the inherited book that means the most to me came from my mother. Her grandfather, Naftali Tsvi Yehuda Berlin, a well-known 19^th-century rabbi and head of the renowned Volozhin Yeshiva inLithuania, wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch that is widely read and  admired in Orthodox circles to this day. My mother inherited the five volumes of its first edition from my grandfather and passed them on to me. They were printed in Vilna in 1879-80, and I still shiver slightly when I open them.  Since they were meant to be used in synagogue on Sabbaths, when the weekly portion of the Torah is read, they also contain the text of the Sabbath morning service. In it is a prayer for the welfare of the Tsar, Alexander Nikolayevitch; his wife, Maria Alexandrovna; their son, Alexander Alexandrovitch, and Alexander Alexandrovitch’s wife, Maria Theodorovna. The prayer wasn’t very effective. Tsar Alexander was assassinated in 1881.

-          What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

Melisande! What Are Dreams? There are worthier books, but they’ll all be spoken for by others. Who will speak for Melisande if not me?

-          What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

Settling in Israel in 1970 – not because it was more “Jewish” than many other things I did, but because it forever changed the nature of what all those other things were.

-          What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

“Important” is a subjective word that pretends to be objective. If I myself had to walk away with one Jewish book from the last 60 years and never again see any of the others, it would be the collected poems of Yehuda Amichai.

-          When did you know you would become a writer?

At the age of fifteen, although it took me a long time to become what I knew then that I wanted to be.

-          If you were not a writer, what would you be?

Probably, a linguist. After dropping out of graduate school with an M.A. in English literature, I seriously considered going back for a Ph.D. in linguistics. In the end, I didn’t.

-          What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

“Get your Ph.D. and teach in a university. You’ll have economic security and there’ll always be time to write.” That was from my mother. It was very sound advice. I’m glad I didn’t take it, but she was right. I’ve never had a moment of economic security since then.

-          What would your superpower be?

Italy. The world couldn’t be any more of a mess than it is now even if the Italians were running it, and it would certainly be a more charming one.

-          Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

My parents, my two daughters, and my grandchild. I’d love to see them all together. I’d love them to get to know each other. My mother died when my daughters were small. Soon afterwards my father developed Alzheimer’s, so that the grandfather they grew up to know wasn’t my father, either.

-          On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

“Here’s the key to your room. I’ll see you in the morning. The executive planning committee meets at nine.”

GDA

On the occasion of JBW’s 60th anniversary, we have decided to attempt the impossible task of listing 60 great Jewish books of the last 60 years.

The discussions were so heated that at some stage the whole idea seemed doomed. I take full responsibility for the list done in consultation with members of the Jewish Book Council. This is a list which aims at reflecting what Jewish Book Week stands for: culturally Jewish, open minded, probing, consensual. Limited to 60, it was unfortunately impossible to include many cutting edge  books which I’m sure we’ll have established themselves and be part of future lists.

Some people thought we should only have Jewish authors. For me, this would be anathema. When inviting speakers to JBW, I really don’t care whether they are Jewish or not as long as their book is relevant. I will not invite a speaker simply because he or she is Jewish and will always strive to find something in the book, however tenuous (and sometimes, it’s true, the link is extremely tenuous) that will justify the invitation. Obviously this also came up in drafting the list and there were countless authors we would have wanted to include but couldn’t.

Some people thought that we should consult specialists in every possible field but this would suppose an endless task and deny the sheer impossibility of coming up with a perfect list.

And then of course, fortunately, we all agreed on not even attempting to rank the books, an absurd task in my view. Let’s say these are 60 great books everyone should know about and hopefully read.

So here it is. The list is now on the website. Every one of you will think of books that are missing and that’s exactly what we would like to hear from you. Email us your suggestions or post them on our facebook or twitter pages. But remember for every book you suggest, you should also remove one from the list and hopefully tell us why.

Those 60 and quite a few more will be available in the book fair at Kings Place. There will also be an audio booth where you will be able to record your choices.

I must shamefully confess there are more books on the list I haven’t read than books I have read but what a delight to know I can look forward to discovering all these “musts”. And if you didn’t know what to get for your friends and loved ones for Hanukkah, you don’t have to look further than this list!

Wishing you all the very best.

Geraldine D’Amico

Alain de Botton opens the festivities with a pre-JBW event at Kings Place on Monday 30 January with the launch of his new book, Religion for Atheists: A non-believer’s guide to the uses of religion. His talks are always sheer intelligent pleasure.

De Botton’s idea is very simple and clear. Atheists go too far in their hatred of all things religious and their anger prevents them from seeing what’s good and should be retained if one does not believe in God. In other words, let’s throw the baby but keep the bath water.

His book looks at community, kindness, education, tenderness, pessimism, perspective, art, architecture and institutions, all things where religion plays a major and -according to Alain de Botton- essential role which can be preserved without the doctrine. He particularly concentrates on Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism.

“This book does not endeavour to do justice to particular religions; they have their own apologists. It tries, instead, to examine aspects of religious life which contain concepts that could fruitfully be applied to the problems of secular society. It attempts to burn off religions’ more dogmatic aspects in order to distil a few aspects of them that could prove timely and consoling to sceptical contemporary minds facing the crises and griefs of finite existence on a troubled planet. It hopes to rescue some of what is beautiful, touching and wise from all that no longer seems true.”

I suspect many JBW audience members would agree with him. A few years ago, we conducted a survey and not surprisingly a great number of people, when asked for their religion, replied “atheist Jew” or as many people would say culturally Jewish. I suppose this is very much Alain de Botton’s situation.

Here are his answers to our interview.

-          If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

It would be a world, of course, without pain and death. Perhaps this would mean that things were less intense, we’d be innocent and spoilt, but that would perhaps be no bad thing.

-          What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

I much enjoyed reading Montaigne’s Essays, which was passed on to me by my father at an impressionable age.

-          What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

My children are very young, 5 and 7 and at the moment, the book they are most fascinated by is a large atlas of the world, which inspires all kinds of imaginary journeys.

-          What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

Worried a lot – about everything.

-          What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

Saul Bellow’s Herzog.

-          When did you know you would become a writer?

I’m still not entirely sure I am one. I have to keep reminding myself on a daily basis. 

-          If you were not a writer, what would you be?

I would love to be an architect.

-          What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

The best choice is the one that leaves you with the least regrets.

-          What would your superpower be?

To rewind time – and make less mistakes.

-          Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

Sigmund Freud.

-          On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

You’ve done OK, despite everything…

Alba Arikha is one of these strikingly beautiful, intelligent and gifted people who make me terribly jealous. I had already heard her sing her own songs and play the piano in the best French tradition, charming and delightful as you can hear here. I particularly liked the song she dedicated to her late father, the artist Avigdor Arikha.

She will be coming to JBW to present her book Major/Minor, a very raw account of growing up feeling a misfit next to her brilliant sister, seemingly incapable of impressing her demanding father and rebelling against school. I loved the way she recaptures her teenager’s anger. The pages when she manages to break the wall of silence and gets her very private father to talk about his harrowing experience of the war are absolute gems. It’s Beckett, her godfather, who encouraged her to write and what a pity his letters to her mysteriously disappeared. The silences in her writing are as cogent and powerful as her words. And if you don’t believe all my raving about her book, here’s what other famous people said of it:

‘An unusually affecting book about the rage and rebellion of a stormy adolescence. Written in terse, pointillistic sentences – as if each sentence were a dab of paint – the accumulation of these tiny strokes creates a rich, fully realised portrait of a young woman’s inner life. I read it straight through in a single sitting – unable to stop.’ –Paul Auster

Or as another minimalist master wrote: ‘This is a truly remarkable book.’ – Edmund de Waal

Alba will be at JBW on Thursday 23 February at 1.00 pm and will discuss her book with another formidable lady, Janine di Giovanni. Do not miss them, this will be a wonderful session.

Here are her answers to our interview:

-       If you could escape to another world, what would there be that is missing here?

Peace

-          What is the book you “inherited” from a parent or teacher that made a profound impression on you?

Germinal, by Emile Zola

-          What is the book you would like to pass on to the future generation?

Anna Karenina

-          What is the most Jewish thing you have ever done?

Sit in a synagogue and feel miserable

-          What is the most important Jewish book of the last 60 years?

American Pastoral, Philip Roth

-          When did you know you would become a writer?

When I wrote a book about a tiger in Bengal, aged 10. I knew little about tigers, even less about Bengal, but enjoyed imagining it so much that I was hooked.

-          If you were not a writer, what would you be?

Making cheese in Provence

-          What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

A proverb by Seneca: It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

-          What would your superpower be?

Speaking every language in the world

-          Who (living or dead) would you invite to your ideal Friday night dinner?

Dorothy Parker, Fellini, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Woody Allen, Fauré, George Sand, Stendhal, Simone de Beauvoir (if only one person, then Stendhal)

-          On the very distant day when you will make it to the other side, what would you like God (assuming there is one) to say to you?

Surprised?