39 Jewish American novels

About Us is a novel by the American writer Chester Aaron set in 1930s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Absurdistan is a 2006 novel by Gary Shteyngart. It chronicles the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325-pound son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, as he struggles to return to his true love in the South Bronx.

Adé: A Love Story is the debut novel of writer Rebecca Walker, first published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2013.

The Agunah is a 1974 English translation by Curt Leviant of the 1961 Yiddish novel Di Agune by Chaim Grade. It was also published in a 1962 Hebrew translation, Ha-Agunah (העגונה).

Bee Season is a 2000 novel by Myla Goldberg. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.

The Best of Everything (1958) is Rona Jaffe's first novel. It is the story of five young employees of a New York publishing company.

The Book of Lights is a 1981 novel by Chaim Potok about a young rabbi and student of Kabbalah whose service as a United States military chaplain in Korea and Japan after the Korean War challenges his thinking about the meaning of faith in a world of "light" from many sources.

Bread Givers is a 1925 three-volume novel by Jewish-American author Anzia Yezierska; the story of a young girl growing up in an immigrant Jewish household in the Lower East Side of New York City. Her parents are from Poland in the Russian Empire.

Call It Sleep is a 1934 novel by Henry Roth. The book is about a young boy growing up in the Jewish immigrant ghetto of New York's Lower East Side in the early 20th century.

Caspian Rain is the fourth novel from Gina B. Nahai and takes place in the decade before the Islamic Revolution. The book was published in 2007 by MacAdam/Cage in the United States and has been published in 15 languages.

The Changelings is a novel by Jo Sinclair first published in 1955 by McGraw Hill. Features tomboy protagonist Judith "Vincent" Vincent, a 12-year-old who is the newly deposed leader of a gang of pre-teen and teenage children in her Jewish/Sicilian neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Chosen is a novel written by Chaim Potok. It was first published in 1967. It follows the narrator Reuven Malter and his friend Daniel Saunders, as they grow up in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1940s. A sequel featuring Reuven's young adult years, The Promise, was published in 1969.

Cry of the Peacock is the first novel from Gina B. Nahai and follows the story of a family of Jews through seven generations, from 1780s Persia to contemporary Iran. The book was published in 1991 by Crown Publishing Group in the United States and won several awards. It was an alternate selection of The Book of the Month Club and The Doubleday Book Club.

Davita's Harp is a novel by Chaim Potok, published in 1985. It is the only one of Potok's full-length novels to feature a female protagonist.

Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong which became controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality and figured in the development of second-wave feminism.

Florence Adler Swims Forever is the debut novel of American author Rachel Beanland. It was first published in the United States on July 7, 2020 through Simon & Schuster and centers upon a family living in Atlantic City during the 1930s.

The Gift of Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok, published in 1990. It is a sequel to Potok's novel My Name Is Asher Lev (1972).

In Her Shoes (2002) is a work of Jewish American literature by Jennifer Weiner. It tells the story of two sisters and their estranged grandmother. The novel was a New York Times bestseller. The two sisters happen to wear the same size shoes - the only common ground that they have besides a mutual hatred of their step-mother.

In the Beginning is the 1975 fourth novel by Chaim Potok. The novel tells the story of David Lurie, an Orthodox Jewish boy from the Bronx growing up in the Great Depression of the 1930s up to the revealing of the fate of the Lurie family's relatives in Poland at the end of World War II.

Jews without Money is a 1930 semi-autobiographical novel by American critic Mike Gold.

Kaaterskill Falls is a 1998 novel by Allegra Goodman, set in a small Catskill Mountains, New York, USA, community of predominantly Orthodox Jews during summers in the mid-1970s. The location is based on the town of Tannersville, NY where Goodman spent summers with her family. Like its fictional counterpart, Tannersville at the time was a summer home for the German Jews of Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Marjorie Morningstar is a 1955 novel by Herman Wouk, about a woman who wants to become an actress. Marjorie Morningstar has been called "the first Jewish novel that was popular and successful, not merely to a Jewish audience but to a general one". In 1958, the book was the basis for a Hollywood feature movie starring Natalie Wood, also titled Marjorie Morningstar.

Mazes and Monsters is a 1981 novel by Rona Jaffe. The novel is a cautionary tale regarding the then-new hobby of fantasy role-playing games. The book was adapted into a made-for-television movie by the same name in 1982 starring Tom Hanks.

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith is the second novel from Gina B. Nahai and follows the story of Lili and her mother's mysterious disappearance. The book was published in 2000 by Washington Square Press in the United States and became a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok, an American author and rabbi. The book's protagonist is Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York City. Asher is a loner with artistic inclinations. His art, however, causes conflicts with his family and other members of his community. The book follows Asher's maturity as both an artist and a Jew.

Never Mind the Goldbergs is a 2005 novel by Matthue Roth. Its plot follows the seventeen-year-old Hava Aaronson, an Orthodox Jewish girl living in New York City, as she is invited to live in Hollywood for the summer to star on a fictional television show, The Goldbergs.

The Pawnbroker (1961) is a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant which tells the story of Sol Nazerman, a concentration camp survivor who suffers flashbacks of his past Nazi imprisonment as he tries to cope with his daily life operating a pawn shop in East Harlem. It was adapted into a motion picture by Sidney Lumet.

The Promise is a novel written by Chaim Potok, published in 1969. It is a sequel to his previous novel The Chosen. Set in 1950s New York, it continues the saga of the two friends, Reuven Malter, a Modern Orthodox Jew studying to become a rabbi, and Danny Saunders, a genius Hasidic Jew who has broken with his sect's tradition by refusing to take his father's place as rebbe in order to become a psychologist. The theme of the conflict between traditional and modern Orthodox Judaism that runs throughout The Chosen is expanded here against the backdrop of the changes that have taken place in Reuven and Danny's world in the period of time between the two novels: following World War II, European survivors of the Holocaust have come to America, rebuilding their shattered lives and often making their fiercely traditionalist religious viewpoint felt among their people.

The Red Tent is a novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by Wyatt Books for St. Martin's Press. It is a first-person narrative that tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, sister of Joseph. She is a minor character in the Bible, but the author has broadened her story. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.

Stone Butch Blues is a novel written by Leslie Feinberg about life as a butch lesbian in 1970s America.

Sunday's Silence is the third novel from Gina B. Nahai and follows the story of a journalist searching for the truth about his father's death. The book was published in 2003 by Washington Square Press in the United States and became a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn", a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans.

The Warriors is a novel written by Sol Yurick and illustrated by Frank Modell in 1965. It became the inspiration for the cult classic movie The Warriors. Compared to the movie, the novel takes a closer look at the concepts of sexuality, reputation, family, and survival.

Wartime Lies is a semi-autobiographical novel by Louis Begley first published in 1991. Set in Poland during the years of the Nazi occupation, it is about two members of an upper middle class Jewish family, a young woman and her nephew, who avoid persecution as Jews by assuming Catholic identities. Time and again the boy, who narrates the story from some remote point in time, reminisces about how he learned at an early age to lie in order to survive. Thus, his whole adult life is founded on the "wartime lies" of his childhood.

Watch Your Mouth is a novel by American writer Daniel Handler.

What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) is a novel by Budd Schulberg inspired by the life of his father, early Hollywood mogul B. P. Schulberg. It is a rags to riches story chronicling the rise and fall of Sammy Glick, a Jewish boy born in New York's Lower East Side who, very early in his life, makes up his mind to escape the ghetto and climb the ladder of success by deception and betrayal. It was later made into a long-running Broadway musical.

The Yeshiva is an English translation by Curt Leviant of the Yiddish novel Tsemakh Atlas by Chaim Grade. It was published in two volumes in Yiddish and also in translation. It was also published in a Hebrew translation, with the same title as the Yiddish.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.

Yonnondio: From the Thirties is a novel by American author Tillie Olsen which was published in 1974 but written in the 1930s. The novel details the lives of the Holbrook family, depicting their struggle to survive during the 1920s. Yonnondio explores the life of the working-class family, as well as themes of motherhood, socioeconomic order, and the pre-depression era. The novel was published as an unfinished work.