Joanna Rakoff

"Uniformly excellent."--The Jewish StandardThis rich medley of stories, poems, and essays features evocations of Chanukah by classic and contemporary authors including Sholom Aleichem, Nobel laureates S. Y. Agnon and Elie Wiesel, I. L. Peretz, Emma Lazarus, Theodor Herzl, Chaim Potok, Mark Strand, A. B. Yehoshua, Emma Green, Joanna Rakoff, and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. There are humorous as well as meditative tales from Israel, Central Europe, and the United States--works that capture the Festival of Lights as observed on Manhattan's Upper West Side alongside accounts of celebrations in shtetls of the Old Country and far reaches of the Diaspora including Africa. The writings underscore what it means to be Jewish in a world that's not always welcoming and include intriguing commentary about Chanukah's origins and what it means now.

'Funny and acerbic … A Fortunate Age leaves a lasting impression' New York Observer'An epic novel ... about a generation finding its way ... Rakoff has brilliantly captured the mood of the era and the energy of a city' Bookpage________________Living in crumbling Brooklyn apartments, holding down jobs as actors and writers and eschewing the middle-class sensibilities of their parents, graduates of the prestigious Oberlin College, Lil, Beth, Sadie, Emily, Dave and Tal believe they can have it all.When the group come together to celebrate a marriage,anything seems possible. But soon the reality of rent, marriage and family will test them all. For this fortunate age can’t last for ever, and the group must face adulthood, whether they are ready for it or not.Sprawling and richly drawn, A Fortunate Age traces the lives of the group during some of the most defining years of modern America – from the decadence of the dot com boom through to the sobering events of September 11 and the trailing years that followed – this brilliant, ambitious debut novel perfectly captures the hopes, anxieties and dreams of a generation.

The much-loved, irresistibly funny memoir of literary New York which was an international bestseller and enchanted readers around the world – now a major film starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley, My New York Year‘Gripping and funny’ Observer‘Like a literary The Devil Wears Prada ... An irresistible read’ Harper’s Bazaar'Irresistible' Sunday Times'Spellbinding' GuardianAfter leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. Precariously balanced between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office - where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze after three-martini lunches - and then goes home to her threadbare Brooklyn apartment and her socialist boyfriend.Rakoff is tasked with processing Salinger’s voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agency’s form response and impulsively begins writing back. The results are both humorous and moving, as Rakoff, while acting as the great writer’s voice, begins to discover her own.

A keenly observed and irresistibly funny memoir about literary New York in the late nineties, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing. Now a major motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. Precariously balanced between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office--where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze after three-martini lunches--and then goes home to her threadbare Brooklyn apartment and her socialist boyfriend. Rakoff is tasked with processing Salinger's voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agency's form response and impulsively begins writing back. The results are both humorous and moving, as Rakoff, while acting as the great writer's voice, begins to discover her own.