Howard Freedman

The title of Fran Fabriczki’s debut novel, “Porcupines,” is taken from a parable from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in which porcupines cope with freezing weather by huddling together for warmth — only to be repelled by the pain inflicted by each other’s quills. It’s an apt metaphor for the challenges of relationships in the novel, as the protagonist’s strategy for getting through life is to keep others at bay, though she does so at a cost.

A long-forgotten event featured significantly in this publication 82 years ago when San Francisco played host to two Jewish leaders from the Soviet Union during World War II. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed in the USSR in 1942 to solicit international Jewish support for the forces battling Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front. The committee chairman was Solomon Michoels, director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre and the nation's most celebrated Yiddish actor.

Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. Amid the polarizing debates and activism around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is often lamented that there is insufficient space for nuance. Zeeva Bukai's debut novel, "The Anatomy of Exile," is very much a book devoted to that nuance, attentive to injuries experienced by all sides.