Sue's Bookshelf

October 2024

By Sue Littauer

"The greatest mystery in people's lives is their children." - "The Wolf Hunt"

How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to welcome Ayelet Gunder-Goshen to our Oct. 9 Center for Jewish Education (CJE) Book Club on Zoom. Not only is Gunder-Goshen a brilliant writer, but she is also an insightful, thought-provoking, and charming speaker. I recently watched an in-depth-interview with her as she discussed her most recent book, "The Wolf Hunt", our book club selection for October. It is a psychological thriller, and its themes are as relevant today as they were when iy was published on Aug. 15, 2023.

According to Hadassah Magazine, "Acclaimed Israeli author and clinical psychologist Eyelet Gundar-Goshen's fifth novel, 'The Wolf Hunt', is a tense and riveting thriller that centers around one essential question: was the son of an Israel family living in California involved in the tragic death of his classmate?" The book follows the family as they grapple with racism, antisemitism, and what it means to be foreigners living in the United States. The timely and important novel, which touches on parenting, motherhood, displacement, and masculinity, also asks a follow-up question: “How well do people know those closest to them?”

If “The Wolf Hunt” is your first Ayelet Gundar-Goshen book, I highly recommend reading “Waking Lions,” published in 2017. Without a doubt, “Waking Lions” has been my favorite book read by our CJE Book Club over the past six years. Jonathan Kirsch wrote in the Jewish Journal, “Gundar-Goshen transcends the genre of thriller... ‘Waking Lions’ is a work of exquisite literary craft, a book that penetrates to the heart and soul of its characters.” The book explores moral and ethical dilemmas, how we deal with our own guilt, the issues of the privileged versus the poor, and voiceless segments of society.

Please note the October CJE Book Club meeting will not be in-person. We will join together on Zoom. For more information, please contact sueb.littauer@jewishcharlotte.org.

Now, a few words about other books on my radar:

I loved “The Lost English Girl” by Julia Kelly, a work of historical fiction based on the evacuation of city children to the English countryside during World War II.

I highly recommend “Long Island” by Colm Tóibín, the sequel to his prize-winning, bestselling novel, “Brooklyn.” Katie Jarvis, from Pan Macmillan Publishing, calls it an “exquisite, exhilarating novel that asks whether it is possible to truly return to the past and renew the great love that seemed to have been gone forever.”

Finally, the highly anticipated “Long Island Compromise” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner is the follow-up to her best-selling and widely acclaimed novel “Fleishman Is in Trouble.” “Long Island Compromise” is a fictionalized true story that begins in 1980 when Carl Fletcher, a prominent businessman, is kidnapped in his driveway, taken to a mysterious destination, and tortured by unknown assailants. The implications have a deep and lasting impact on his vastly wealthy and highly dysfunctional family.

To the faithful readers of my monthly Chartlotte Jewish News column, I wish each of you and your families a happy and healthy new year. May it be a year that brings peace to Israel and the world, healing to our politically divided country, and a cessation of the rising tide of antisemitism affecting our college campuses.