Zelitch, Simone
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US academic and author, active since the early 1990s, and at least one of whose novels, Louisa (2000), can be described as Holocaust Fiction. She is of sf interest for her fifth novel, Judenstaat (2016), an Alternate History story whose title directly reflects Theodor Herzl's nonfiction pamphlet, Der Judenstaat ["The Jewish State"] (1896 chap). Her novel is based on the premise that, soon after the conclusion of World War Two, on 4 April 1948, a Jewish state is officially calved off from defeated Germany, an area very roughly corresponding to the southern half of communist East Germany (whose formal existence in our world dates from April 1949). Set in 1987, the tale explores the previous forty years through the memories of its protagonist, who is making a documentary film about Judenstaat's place in the world, while dealing with the murder of her conductor husband. The inner and the outer worlds complexly intersect. [JC]
Simone Zelitch
born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
works (selected)
- Louisa (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 2000) [hb/]
- Judenstaat (New York: Tor, 2016) [hb/FORT]
links
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