David Herman

David Herman is the JC’s chief fiction reviewer

Latest from David Herman

Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and its Maker, review: ‘a Bloomsday treat’

This is a fascinating tribute to Richard Ellmann, the son of Jewish immigrants from Romania and Ukraine, and James Joyce’s greatest biographer

By David Herman

1 min read

Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and its Maker, review: ‘a Bloomsday treat’

The Jewish Pedlar review: ‘Anglo-Jewry’s only mass murderer’

2 min read

Leading Jewish historian Anson Rabinbach dies at 79

3 min read

The Assault review: ‘return of a classic war novel’

2 min read

More from David Herman

The ordinary choices of ordinary people in post-war Germany

This is a remarkable novel about how everyday Europeans faced up to life as war drew to a close

3 min read

April 4, 2025 10:02

Focus on the unremarkable: Rachel Seiffert and her latest novel

Bernard-Henri Lévy: ‘The war against Hamas and Russia is one battle against the same evil’

The renowned French intellectual speaks to the JC from the Russian front

4 min read

March 13, 2025 11:34

Bernard-Henri Levy delivers a speech during a ceremony organised by the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) to pay tribute to the victims of Hamas' October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chasidic stories that anticipate the parables of Franz Kafka

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav was one of the great Chasidic writers of the early modern period, and this Pushkin Press translation of his tales of rabbis, robbers, princes and paradoxes is a treasure

1 min read

March 7, 2025 12:51

The Chasidic stories that anticipate the parables of Franz Kafka

33 Place Brugmann review: ‘secrets, betrayal and courage in occupied Brussels’

From RAF pilots and members of the resistance risking their lives, to Jewish refugee nurses caring for the desperately wounded, this American playwright’s first novel is packed with twists and turns

1 min read

February 20, 2025 12:57

33 Place Brugmann review: ‘secrets, betrayal and courage in occupied Brussels’

East Broadway to Whitechapel, review: ‘stirring snapshots of a bygone world’

David Katz’s short stories are a moving evocation of the Jewish world of Brooklyn and the East End, but also the world of Yiddish literature

2 min read

January 17, 2025 14:34

East Broadway to Whitechapel, review: ‘stirring snapshots of a bygone world’

Why Not Let the Leaning Tower Collapse review: ‘big questions on history and morality’

Daniel Snowman is an engaging historian who brings a wide range of subjects to life in this new book of essays

2 min read

November 29, 2024 12:52

Eclectic subjects: Gustav Mahler (left) and Barack Obama

The Thinking Heart review: ‘David Grossman’s dream for Israel omits certain details’

The leading Israeli novelist’s new book fails to ask tough questions about the Jewish state’s implacable enemies

2 min read

November 1, 2024 16:02

The Hebrew Teacher review: ‘big questions about the future of Israel’

Maya Arad’s trio of widely feted novellas examine the familial and professional challenges facing Jews in California and in the Jewish state

2 min read

September 26, 2024 09:58

Critically acclaimed: Maya Arad Credit: Jewish Book Council

No Road Leading Back review: ‘hell and real heroism’

This is the one of the best books written about the Shoah by Bullets, an often overlooked aspect of the Holocaust

2 min read

September 20, 2024 11:44

No Road Leading Back review: ‘hell and real heroism’

Elaine review: ‘Jew lite-ville’

Despite its plethora of Yiddishe names, it is difficult to see Self’s latest novel as a reckoning with his Jewish identity and the writing is also a long way from the rhythms of Bellow, Roth and Nicole Krauss

2 min read

September 20, 2024 11:25

Jewish Nonagenarians review: ‘triumph over adversity’

The extraordinary lives of these ordinary people are utterly fascinating

2 min read

September 6, 2024 09:00

Jewish Nonagenarians review: ‘triumph over adversity’

The Pendragon Legend, review: Upper-class chomps and femmes fatales pitched into dark country-house thriller

I was bowled over by this rediscovered work of master novelist Antal Szerb

2 min read

July 31, 2024 16:01

The Pendragon Legend, review: Upper-class chomps and femmes fatales pitched into dark country-house thriller

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