The Rabbi’s Suitcase
In May, 2025 köehlerbooks will release Kehlmann’s novel, The Rabbi’s Suitcase: A family Odyssey. The fictional work, inspired by real people and true events, is a multi-generational love story that weaves together elements of WWI Palestinian and depression-era American history, family memoirs, and the politically charged passionate love letters Kehlmann found among his mother’s belongings after her death. This is a tale of youthful self-discovery that will interest lovers of historical fiction, romance, the roots of early Jewish statehood, and depression-era emigration to America
In the early 1880s, a battered steamship, overcrowded with Orthodox Jewish travelers, makes a treacherous journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem, the home of their patriarchs. On board, Yosef Siev, a 12-year-old mystic is entranced with wild haired Chana. They will wed and, against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandate uprisings, struggle to raise their family.
In 1926, Yosef and Chana’s 17-year-old granddaughter, Zipora, enters into a fiery relationship with Reuven that is forbidden by Jerusalem’s Orthodox Jewish community. Their romance sheds light on the youthful passions and political ambitions of a man destined to become one of the founders of the state of Israel. The liaison extracts a heavy toll. Zipora travels to America hoping to break free of endemic poverty and help pay for Reuven’s education at the Sorbonne. He distinguishes himself in Paris’s Zionist community while she stagnates as a caregiver in a Brooklyn orphanage. Conflicts arise over issues of gender inequality and fidelity, forcing heart-wrenching decisions.
Stay tuned for announcements, reviews, more photos, and a blog where you can share your thoughts with the author and others.
