The Cape Jewish Chronicle has invited some of our readers who are book lovers to share their recommendations about books they have read – and loved! Please share your recommendations by contacting editor@ctjc.co.za.
Fiction
This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
Recommended by ALIX EPSTEIN. Alix is a teacher by day (at Herzlia Highlands Primary School); bookstagrammer by night; a lover of cats, sneakers, ice cream in any weather; and an avid reader in her spare time. See her Instagram page about books called @alix_in_wonderlnd.
Best friends, Benny and Joy, who run a very popular and lucrative survival podcast, are thrown into their own tale of survival. One morning, Benny goes to Joy’s house, only to find their window smashed in, and Joy and her husband, Xander, are nowhere to be found. All signs point to Benny being the police’s main suspect; Benny must solve the mystery of his friend’s disappearance using the only clue that he has at his disposal: Joy’s unseen, incomplete memoir.
A genre-bending debut novel like no other. I devoured this cleverly written, exciting novel in one sitting. It is such a fascinating look at love and survival, and stopping at nothing to protect the people we love most. This book is written for the screen; it’s quick-witted, easy to read, and thrilling from beginning to end. If this is her debut, I am eagerly awaiting what comes next for this shiny new author.
The book is available on Kindle, as an audiobook, and is currently available online on Amazon.
Queen Esther by John Irving
Recommended by SHERYL SCHKOLNE, a voracious reader of fiction, a painter and ceramicist, and someone who has had the opportunity to travel widely. The travel provides inspiration for subjects to paint. See more about Sheryl’s art on her Instagram page: artbysheryl
The writer John Irving has written many books of which The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules are the most well-known. In 1999 he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Cider House Rules.
Queen Esther, published in 2025, deals with the recurring theme of avoiding enlistment during the Vietnam War, a theme that has appeared in previous novels and that Irving himself grappled with. The book highlights the importance of family and the influence of history and reading in determining your life path. The role of anti-Semitism in small-town America is discussed, as is the idea of surrogacy in the 1960s.
After making Aliyah, Esther is often absent, yet her role in the development of the novel is crucial to understanding the complexity of human relationships. From Germany to America and finally Israel, it is a novel on a grand scale. Who is a Jew? How to navigate cultures different from your own, while remaining true to yourself.
I found Queen Esther an absorbing and worthwhile choice of book.
The book is available for lending from the Jacob Gitlin Library or can be purchased on Loot.
Non-Fiction
Kutchinsky’s Egg by Serena Kutchinsky
Recommended by MAXINE BOYD, a prolific reader, especially of Jewish non-fiction and history, as well as of Jewish historical novels, memoirs, and Holocaust literature. Maxine is a seasoned volunteer in Cape Town’s Jewish community.
Kutchinsky’s Egg is the story of an emigrant family from Russia who become one of the biggest jewellers in London. It tells of the family’s rise to high society, and how the author’s father became obsessed with making the world’s largest jewelled egg, a treasure to rival the Fabergé masterpieces. The obsession with the jewelled egg results in the loss of all his family’s money and the collapse of the House of Kutchinsky. During this time, his marriage fails, and he becomes estranged from his daughters. After his death, his daughter decides to search for the jewelled egg that ruined his life and changed all their lives completely.
This memoir – a true-life rags-to-riches story which takes one to numerous locations across the globe – is fascinating. I could not put it down as it was so riveting and took me into a world of jewellery, bad business decisions, deceit, and family faribles that eventually split a family up.
The book is available for downloading on Kindle and for purchase on Takealot.
PODCAST
Dame Vera Stephanie (‘Steve’) Shirley on BBC Witness History: The Kindertransport children who fled the Nazis
EDITOR’S recommendation.
This tells the story of the flight of children from Germany to the UK in the late 1930s and provides insight into one person’s story. While the history of the Kindertransport is well-known, the story of an individual’s unique experience makes it far more meaningful. One would think that the fact that the child’s parents survived the War and were reunited with her would mean a happy ending, but it was difficult for the child to pick up the relationship with her parents after having been separated from them for
so long.
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