Author Suggestions
Lisa Barr is known for fast-paced historical fiction with suspense, romance, and emotionally complex female leads. Her novels often explore art theft, espionage, and survival during and after WWII, with Jewish identity at the core.
Start with: Woman on Fire
Anne Berest is a French author whose work blends personal history with broader questions of identity, memory, and the legacy of the Holocaust. Her novel draws from her own family’s past and explores what it means to be Jewish in contemporary France, weaving together memoir, detective story, and historical fiction.
Start with: The Postcard
Michelle Cameron is an American author who writes richly detailed historical novels on Jewish themes. Her style tends to combine well-researched historical settings (medieval Europe, Napoleonic Italy, etc.) with strong female protagonists, moral conflict, and exploration of Jewish life under pressures both internal (tradition, faith) and external (anti-Semitism, political upheaval).
Start with: The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz
Talia Carner writes gripping historical fiction, often featuring Jewish women in perilous circumstances across various global and historical settings—from turn-of-the-century Russia to Holocaust-era Europe. Her work combines extensive research with emotional depth and a strong sense of justice.
Start with: The Boy with the Star Tattoo
Jennifer Coburn is an American author who writes historical fiction that highlights lesser-known stories of Jewish resistance, especially women’s roles during the Holocaust. Her writing is emotionally resonant, carefully researched, and often features dual timelines exploring generational trauma and courage.
Start with: The Girls of Glimmer Factory
Anita Diamant is an American writer. Her style often combines strong, female-centered narratives set in historical settings (ancient, early 20th century, WWII), with vivid detail about daily life and Jewish identity. Start with: The Red Tent
Allison Epstein blends wit, queerness, and deeply researched historical fiction, often set in Europe with Jewish characters navigating identity, secrecy, and resistance in hostile societies.
Start with: Fagin the Thief
Elizabeth Graver explores Jewish diaspora, family, and identity, often with lyrical prose and historical depth. Her most recent novel, based on her own family history, explores the Sephardic Jewish experience in Turkey and Cuba.
Start with: Kantika
Marek Halter is a Polish-born French author and Holocaust survivor whose novels often focus on Jewish history, biblical women, and the spiritual and political struggles of the Jewish people across centuries. His style is both lyrical and educational, bringing historical and religious figures vividly to life.
Start with: Sarah
Kristin Harmel is an American author with Jewish heritage. She specializes in WWII historical fiction with strong female protagonists, often with dual timelines or family secrets, deeply researched settings, and emotional stakes. Start with: The Book of Lost Names
Pam Jenoff, Before becoming a full-time novelist, American author Pam Jenoff worked in the foreign service, including in Poland dealing with Holocaust legacy, which influences her subject matter. Her style tends toward WWII fiction / Holocaust / espionage / moral dilemmas, with strong female leads and a blend of historical event with personal drama.
Start with: The Orphan’s Tale
Rachel Kadish is an American author who writes literary historical fiction that often interweaves past and present, frequently focused on Jewish history, women’s lives, text and memory, and the recovery of “forgotten” or overlooked narratives. Start with: The Weight of Ink
Nicole Krauss is an American novelist with family roots in Europe (Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) and Israel. Her style is more literary and sometimes postmodern: she deals with memory, identity, loss, Jewish history, and often uses multiple narrators, nonlinear structure, emotional depth, and metaphor.
Start with: The History of Love
Dora Levy Mossanen is an author born in Israel, raised in Iran, and now based in the U.S. She writes sweeping, often multi-generational or multi-setting historical fiction, frequently featuring Jewish characters in Middle Eastern settings, with romance, power dynamics, and family secrets woven into broader historical and cultural contexts.
Start with: Harem
Pamela Reitman writes historical fiction centered around Jewish experiences, often drawing on archival history, cultural tradition, and the resilience of women across generations. Start with: Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life
Roberta Rich is a Canadian author who divides her time between Vancouver, British Columbia and Colima, Mexico. Her style is historical fiction with richly detailed period settings (Venice in the
16th-century, Ottoman-period Constantinople, etc.), strong female protagonists, grappling with religious, social, and gender constraints. Start with: The Midwife of Venice
Nancy Richler was a Canadian novelist, born in Montreal. She often explored themes of Jewish identity, history, and moral ambiguity, frequently using historical settings (early 20th century Russia, or periods of Jewish upheaval) in her fiction.
Start with: Your Mouth is Lovely
Shari J. Ryan writes emotional, romantic WWII-era fiction with Jewish protagonists, focusing on love, loss, and survival during the Holocaust and beyond. Her stories are accessible, heartfelt, and grounded in historical reality. Start with: The Bookseller of Dachau
Anna Solomon blends literary style with historical fiction, focusing on themes of womanhood, Jewish identity, and moral ambiguity. Her stories often span generations and timelines, examining how the past shapes the present.
Start with: Book of V.
Helene Wecker is an American writer who writes historical fantasy/fiction, blending folklore (Jewish, Arabic, etc.) with richly imagined immigrant experiences, often in turn-of-the-20th-century settings. Start with: The Golem and the Jinni
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