Jeff Somers is the author of
Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books,
Chum from Tyrus Books, and
We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's
top five fantasy books with Jewish themes, as shared at the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:
The Cure, by Sonia Levitin
This brilliant novel pivots on some of the same ideas found in Lois Lowry’s The Giver, but draws a completely different conclusion from them. In the 25th century, Gemm 16884 lives in a world where peace and order are maintained through the consumption of drugs and the elimination of disruptive forces—including art. When Gemm defies society by making music, he is given a choice: execution, or a sort of “virtual reality” experience that will make him a Jew in 14th century Strasbourg at the height of the Black Death, when Jews were widely blamed for the disease and pogroms were common. The idea is that Gemm will see how much better the future is and mend his ways—but what makes the story remarkable is how Levitin’s ending is both exactly as expected, and yet somehow a complete subversion.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
“That’s the problem with being born in New York – you’ve got no New York to run away to.” Banker-turned-novelist Amor Towles’s underrated 2011 debut, inspired by his grandmother’s life, opens at a 1937 New Year’s Eve bash in Greenwich Village (“We started the evening with a plan of stretching three dollars as far as it would go”) and follows the next 12 months in the life of Russian immigrant’s daughter Katey Kontent (real name Katya). This Dorothy Parker-meets-Holly Golightly heroine hangs out in sleazy jazz clubs, sips gin martinis, steals silk stockings from Bendel’s and works at a louche literary magazine, all the while seeking her fortune and true love. It’s like a retro-chic Sex and the City or Downton Abbey on a gap year.
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