The Rabbi's Suitcase - Paperback

by Robert Kehlmann (Author)

A suitcase of hidden love letters. Four generations. One family's crossing from a Lithuanian shtetl to Ottoman Jerusalem - and on to Depression-era America.

Winner of the 2026 NYC Big Book Award - Judaism

Winner of the 2026 American Legacy Book Awards - Best New Fiction

Winner of the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Award - Historical Fiction (1900s)

Inspired by history and a trove of love letters, The Rabbi's Suitcase recounts how, 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 twelve-year-old mystic, is entranced with wild-haired Chana. Their story is told against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandatory uprisings.

In 1926 Yosef and Chana's seventeen-year-old granddaughter, Zipora, enters a forbidden relationship with Reuven, a young Lithuanian immigrant destined, as a close ally of David Ben Gurion, to become a founder of the State of Israel. The liaison extracts a heavy toll. With dreams of self-discovery and a better future for herself and her family, Zipora travels to America determined to contribute to Reuven's studies at the Sorbonne. Conflicts arise over issues of politics, gender inequality, and fidelity, forcing heart-wrenching decisions.

Robert Kehlmann built this multigenerational family saga from real history and a trove of intimate letters found among his mother's belongings after her death. It is a sweeping immigrant love story and a portrait of Jewish life across three continents and fifty years - Lithuania, Palestine under Turkish and British rule, and the America of the Great Depression.

"A poignant, informative portrait of Jewish life." - Kirkus Reviews

For readers of sweeping historical fiction and literary family sagas.