- Published: 07/03/2013
- ISBN: 9781846274152
- 148x20mm
- 140 pages
Oh Sweden! Oh Israel!
Stephan Mendel-Enk
Translated by Michael Lundin
Around the time of Jacob’s bar mitzvah, his mother leaves his father for another man, and he is not even Jewish. It’s 1987, the First Intifada is about to break out, and the Jewish community in Gothenburg, many of them descendants of Holocaust survivors, is under a certain amount of strain. Jacob relates his family’s break-up in the context of a fragmented diaspora community orientated towards Israel and America with humour and affection. Mendel-Enk’s debut novel is a portrait of a Swedish Jewish community, filled with comedy, tragedy and zest for life.
£12.99
Touching [and] beautifully observed
Jane Horsham, Guardian
The lives and sorrows of post-Holocaust Jewish community in Sweden are revealed with tender clarity and dark, wry humour
Tina Jackson, Metro
As Jacob confronts the harsh realities of adult life, his witty observations capture how people react when their worlds fall in... An irreverent portrayal of a small and modernising society
Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times
Stephan Mendel-Enk on Granta.com
In Conversation | The Online Edition
Sami Said | Best Untranslated Writers
Stephan Mendel-Enk
‘Frustrated reporters have described him whistling rather than answering their questions and giving most of the credit for the books to someone named Oscar. The only thing that seems certain about him is that he’ll continue to write.’