Books by Shalom Auslander

An outrageously tasty comedy about identity, tribalism and mothers, from the author of Hope: A Tragedy - 'the funniest novel of the decade' Sunday Times

'The humour, at times can leave you gasping . . . comic brilliance' Sunday Times Solomon Kugel has had enough of the past and its burdens. So, in the hope of starting afresh, he moved his family to a small rural town where nothing of import has ever happened. Sadly, Kugel's life isn't that simple. His family soon find themselves threatened by a local arsonist and his ailing mother won't stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she didn't actually suffer through. And when, one night, Kugel discovers a living, breathing, thought-to-be-dead specimen of history hiding in his attic, bad very quickly becomes worse. 'Singularly inventive and superbly shocking . . . nothing short of genius' Scotland on Sunday 'He will make you laugh until your heart breaks' New York Times Book Review

Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up, defying and eventually being cast out of his community, he could not find his way to a life in which he wasn't locked in a daily struggle with Him. Foreskin's Lament is a rich and fascinating portrait of a man grappling with his faith, his family and his community. 'Bracing and witty . . . Never, frankly, can there have been a more blasphemous book . . . Foreskin's Lament somehow expresses the ideas of Richard Dawkins in the tone of David Sedaris. You can read it for the humour, you can read it as reportage into a secretive and bizarre world, you can read it as a personal tale of triumph over adversity, or you can just read it for the misery. It doesn't really matter. But do read it' William Sutcliffe, Independent on Sunday 'One of the funniest books I've ever read, killingly so' Hilary Spurling, Observer 'Exceptional . . . very, very funny' Time Out 'Painfully poignant and hilariously noir' Jewish Chronicle 'By turns hilarious and devastating . . . Few books are laugh-out-loud funny. This one is' Naomi Alderman, Sunday Times 'America's hottest, funniest, most controversial young Jewish memoirist . . . blackly hilarious, groundbreaking' The Times