NONFICTION Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker. (Simon & Schuster, 566 pp. $30) In Human Smoke, writer

Fiction Indignation by Philip Roth. (Houghton Mifflin, 233 pp. $26) Philip Roth began his literary career by setting his groundbreaking novella Goodbye, Columbus not in Ohio but in

Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter is a novel with two inseparable stories. In 1996, a recent college graduate, not Jewish, looks for a job in

Enthusiasts of literature geared to young readers from preschoolers to teens will have much to celebrate as they turn the pages of the newest publications.

Kaddish Poznan earns his living at night, scratching the names off tombstones at the behest of re­spect­able Jews who feel the need to pull up

It is not surprising that Marek Halter was drawn to write about the colorful but enigmatic historical figure of David Reubeni. Halter, a 71-year-old Polish

This Iraqi-born author fled the tyranny of his homeland as a young man, finding freedom of expression and opportunity abroad. “There is one question that

  Rashi and Ibn Ezra, make room.The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, newly pub­lished by Women of Reform Judaism and URJ Press, offers 1,400 pages of