Jacobson and Chevalier to star in Jewish Book Week

Howard Jacobson, Tracy Chevalier and Simon Schama are among the names taking part in Jewish Book Week 2015.

The annual celebration of international arts and ideas will take place from 21st February to 1st March 2015 at Kings Place, London and the Jewish Museum, London.

Jacobson will discuss his Man Booker Prize-nominated novel J (Jonathan Cape), while Chevalier will be talking to composer, singer and author Ella Leya about her debut novel, The Orphan Sky (Sourcebooks Landmark).

Schama will debate some of the potential futures facing Israel and the Middle East with Roger Cohen and Michael Ignatieff. He will also appear as part of a special themed series on Fathers and Daughters in a conversation with his daughter, biographer and journalist Chloe Schama, in which they will focus on the father-daughter bond, parental expectations, intergenerational values and the nature of creativity.

Also in the Fathers and Daughters series, Jonathan Sperber will talk to Jonathan Freedland about his biography of Karl Marx, while Rachel Holmes will be in conversation with Rachel Cooke about her biography of Eleanor Marx.

With Pushkin Press, Jewish Book Week will launch the English edition of Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s debut novel One Night, Markovitch. Marking the 125th anniversary of the birth of G B Stern, author of The Matriarch, Linda Grant will discusses the lasting significance of the tale of the scandalous life of a west London Jewish family. Israeli graphic novelists Rutu Modan and Yirmi Pinkus will celebrate the graphic novel with Sarah Lightman.

Other events include Maureen Lipman and poet Jeremy Robson reading from his new collection of poetry, Blues in the Park (Smokestack Books); Yuval Noah Harari being interviewed by John Gray about his book Sapiens (Harvill Secker); and the New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, will discuss literary journalism alongside the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman.

The full programme for Jewish Book Week 2015 is available at on the festival website.