'Everything Is Illuminated' - best Jewish fiction [p. 24]

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" has been named the decade's best work of Jewish fiction. More than 1,500 people voted online in the first People's Choice Award, sponsored by JBooks.com. Foer's 2004 novel was chosen by 34.7 percent, while Philip Roth's The Plot Against America was chosen by 29.3 percent. The remaining finalists were Cynthia Ozick's The Puttermesser Papers, Saul Bellow's Ravelstein, Dara Horn's In the Image and Steve Stern's The Wedding Jester. Winners of the Koret International Jewish Book Awards were also this week, with David Grossman's Her Body Knows winning for Jewish fiction. The awards will be presented November 15 in San Francisco during the Koret International Jewish Book Awards ceremony. The awards are administered by Jewish Family & Life, in cooperation with the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. • JTA Winners of the 2006 Koret International Book Awards Jewish life and living: Dignity Beyond Death, Rochel Berman Jewish thought: Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein Fiction: Her Body Knows, David Grossman BabagaNewz children's literature: Before You Were Born, Howard Schwartz, illustrated by Kristina Swarner JBooks.Com people's choice award for the decade's best work of Jewish fiction: Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer Reform Judaism prize for Jewish fiction: Kafka in Bronteland, Tamar Yellin National Foundation for Jewish Culture's Samuel Goldberg and Sons Foundation Prize for emerging writer of Jewish fiction: The Discontinuity of Small Things, Kevin Haworth.