Clear a space on the bookshelves as Rebecca Taylor recommends a new crop of books for spring
MUSIC OF EXILE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE COMPOSERS WHO FLED HITLER
by Michael Haas (Yale University Press, £25)
In the 1930s, composers and musicians began to flee Hitler’s Germany to make new lives across the globe. Michael Haas’ new book is a detailed and sensitive exploration of this musical diaspora and the sacrifices they had to make. Torn between cultures, these musicians produced work that synthesized old and new worlds, such as the brilliant Hollywood compositions of Erich Wolfgang Korngold or the Brecht-inspired music of Kurt Weill. There are also fascinating glimpses of less well-known artists.
YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY
By Sasha Vasilyuk (Bloomsbury, £23.90)
Sasha Vasilyuk’s impressive debut novel opens in Ukraine, 2007, with the death of the beloved war veteran Yefim Shulman. But in the days after his death, his widow Nina finds a letter to the KGB revealing a lifelong secret. The confession that is uncovered forces his family and friends to reassess the man they thought they knew. This absorbing drama spans 70 years between World War II and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, and throws light on the situation in Ukraine today.
JEWS MILK GOATS
By Gill Freedman (The Gables Press, £8.99)
When Gill Freedman and her husband Jeremy moved to a smallholding in rural Bedfordshire many of their friends thought they were mad. How could they leave behind the comforts of Hampstead Garden Suburb? What did they know about raising chickens and goats, or growing vegetables? And how would they be able to observe their Jewish faith out in the sticks? Jews Milks Goats is the lively tale of how the couple met these challenges, along the way also uncovering some fascinating British Jewish history.
By Rebecca Taylor
This article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of JR.