Two Jewish novels set in the Southern United States, Ain’t No Grave (Open Road Media, 2024) by Mary Glickman and Goyhood (Central Avenue, 2024) by Reuven Fenton, are the One Bay One Book selections for 2024-2025.
Ain’t No Grave explores the evolving friendship of a Jewish boy and a Black girl from backwoods Georgia through their adulthood in 1913 Atlanta, where they become enmeshed in the pivotal murder trial of Leo Frank and witness the growth of antisemitism in the region. In Goyhood, two estranged brothers from Georgia—one who has become a yeshiva student in Brooklyn and the other who has stayed close to home with a decidedly irreligious lifestyle—are brought together by an unsettling revelation about their identities and go on an unexpected road trip through the South.
Mary Glickman lives in Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina. Ain’t No Grave is her sixth novel set in the South. Reuven Fenton is a journalist with the New York Post. Goyhood is his first book.
Read reviews of Ain’t No Grave from Jewish Post and News and Foreword Reviews.
Read reviews of Goyhood from The Forward, The Associated Press, and The American Israelite.
Praise for Ain’t No Grave:
Ain’t No Grave “is a book for our times. I was alternately outraged, sad, wiser, hopeful, and yearning for more… A fabulous, significant, beautifully rendered addition to historical fiction.”
–Elizabeth Millane, author of Sixty Blades of Grass
“The outcome of the tragic story of Leo Frank and the very real flamboyant reporter, Harold Ross, makes for a setting handled with the touching sensibilities Glickman always displays in her writings about the South she loves…Added to the passion of two young people in love amidst the turmoil of a real tragic event is the passion that Glickman brings to her writing. Love winning out over hate is a strong theme. It is what the world needs.”
–PatZi Gil, host of the radio show Joy on Paper
Praise for Goyhood:
“A big-hearted novel about the enduring importance of faith and family…overall, a lot of fun.” –Associated Press
“A sweet-natured, fast-paced picaresque, the narrative blends the fun of an impromptu, disaster-laced road trip across the American South with a more serious inquiry into American Jewish identity.”
– The Forward
“Rarely do you encounter a work of literary fiction, brilliant in its execution and engaging in its indelible characters, that is also a romp, a grand entertainment. Reuven Fenton’s Goyhood is all of that—its language rich and precise, its people irresistible, and its marvelous story a literal joyride. This is a novel that thrills with its hilarity and humbles with its bigness of heart.”
–Steve Stern, author of The Village Idiot
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One Bay One Book is a year-long conversation connecting Bay Area readers through discussions and events centered around a selection of current Jewish literature and its themes.
Book Groups:
Sets of Ain’t No Grave and Goyhood are available free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis to book groups through our Book Club in a Box lending program. The Library also offers eBook and audiobook versions through our eBook program. For more information, please write to leah@jewishcommunitylibrary.org
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