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Lena Gorelik
Wedding in Jerusalem
256 pages
“A mix of levity and thoughtfulness that cannot be acquired.” Jüdische Allgemeine
Anja, a Russian Jew who has lived in Germany since childhood, travels to Israel with her friend Julian to help him trace his roots. The quest makes her confront not only the question of what it is to be Jewish in Germany today, but also certain aspects of her lovably-irritating family who have found the perfect reason to tag along.
“The thing is my brother isn’t married yet and he’s almost thirty. Aunts and great-aunts in Russia, Israel, America and even Australia ask in hushed tones whether there isn’t someone nice…no, my mother sighs, he is too shy. She thinks that I, his sister, could offer a kind helping hand on this front. My argument that a grown man wouldn’t welcome his sister’s matchmaking falls on deaf ears. My complete indifference towards my family saddens her…” Anja had in fact regarded her journey to Israel with her new boyfriend Julian as a chance to explore her own three-fold identity while helping Julian trace his Jewish roots. Her family’s snap decision to attend the wedding of a distant cousin in Jerusalem, and thus to accompany her, brings different questions into play, however. Such as whose wedding shall be next.
Lena Gorelik was born in Saint Petersburg in 1981 and came to Germany with her Russian-Jewish family in 1992, part of the so-called “refugee quota”. After studying journalism at the German School of Journalism in Munich, she won a place in the highly competitive course of Eastern European Studies. Her first novel ‘My White Nights’ was published in the autumn of 2004 and was acclaimed by bücher as “the best new book about Germany - an absolutely charming book”, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that “‘My White Nights’ proves that new German literature can possess both levity and gravitas.”
Lena Gorelik was awarded the Bayerischen Kunstförderpreis (‘Bavarian Promotion of the Arts Prize’) in 2005.
What the critics say:
“Russian-Jewish Anja who has lived in Germany since childhood travels with her friend Julian to Israel to help him research his roots but the story veers off course…A tremendously entertaining novel but one with a serious backdrop for it deals with the question of what it is to be Jewish in Germany today.”
Ulrich Wickert’s personal recommendation in Wickerts Bücher (NDR Kultur)
“This novel by Lena Gorelik with its lightness of touch again draws on autobiographical detail. And again her unique mix is compelling. With a wealth of incredibly funny and self-mocking passages, there are also many stories that make you think. Her novel is a miniature trip through the multifacted world of present-day Jewish life. Lena Gorelik vividly illustrates the challenges posed by a tri-fold identity: that of a Russian, a German and a Jew.” Stefan Sprang, hr1-Kostbar
“Lena Gorelik’s ‘Wedding in Jerusalem’ is on a par with her successful debut not only in terms of content but also in the narrative quality…A daring, witty and highly intelligent book.” Christine Diller, Münchner Merkur
“May she write many more novels of this ilk!” literature.de
“With her light-of-touch humour Lena Gorelnik weaves a story that treats all clichès with masterly irony.” Silja Ukena, Kulturspiegel
“Hardly anyone can pen a story like Lena Gorelik that is simultaneously upbeat and ruminative, that gives the emotions full rein and puts a cool full-stop to an episode…All’s well that ends well, or at least one lays down the book refreshed, happy and enriched by the multitude of details gleaned from the Russian-Jewish-German-Israeli Buchmann Family. Buy it!” Heidi Bühler-Naef, Schweizer Bibliotheksserivce
“…the stories from Anja’s past, the stories of her immigration and her …slightly eccentric and yet absolutely normal Russian family… These are wonderful little miniatures, full of simplicity, humour and precision… Words and sentences the foil to major emotions.” Jüdische Zeitung
“…it is precisely her dry take on what is happening to her and around her that makes Lena Gorelik’s way of writing so accessible and her books so good.” Süddeutsche Zeitung.