WINNER OF THE 2022 SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE

A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 2015 I learned that my grandfather--whom I had never met, and about whom I knew nearly nothing--had tried for thirty years to reclaim or at least be compensated for property that had belonged to his family before World War 2. I decided I would take up his cause.

I then learned about a heretofore unknown relative--my grandfather's closest relative to have survived the war, in fact--who, on account of a secret diary he had written in the camps, has become a semi-mythological figure among Silesian treasure hunters.

It's hard to summarize. Plunder is this story, these stories, it's a lovely mess.

Plunder was widely reviewed. Dwight Garner's review in the New York Times made me plotz, and then the review in the New York Times Book Review was also very kind. It was praised in the New Yorker, People Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, The Forward, London Review of Books, got a starred review in Kirkus as well as Publishers Weekly. And also the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Jewish Review of Books, Globe and Mail, Jewish Journal, and elsewhere.

Plunder was named a New York Times Critics' top book of the year; a best read of 2021 by Christian Science Monitor; and a best true crime (!) book of 2021 by Lithub. And it won the Sami Rohr Prize, the biggest Jewish book prize in the world.

I was interviewed on NPR and BBC and a whole bunch of podcasts, and was profiled by the Times of Israel, Jewish Chronicle, JTA, and have presented at Museum of Jewish Heritage, American Jewish University, Illinois Holocaust Museum, various book festivals, synagogues, book clubs and once in Boca Raton between mincha and maariv.

Plunder is published in Australia by Scribe, and also in the U.K. by Scribe. It was published in Netherlands by Thomas Rap, in Germany by Zsolnay, and in Poland by KARTA.

Click here for a discussion guide.

Interested in selecting Plunder for your book club? Be in touch! Discounts are available, and I would love to join the discussion!