You've Told Me Before
Jennifer Anne Moses
University of Wisconsin Press, 2025
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad, always compelling, the stories in this collection explore the many manifestations of being Jewish in a modern and largely secular world. Jennifer Anne Moses creates characters, mostly American, who are struggling with love, relationships, faith, tradition, family, and the ties that bind.
A professor of Jewish literature buys a lake house in the countryside with the aim of enjoying it with her husband, dogs, and grown sons, only to discover that her new neighbor is a sexist, dog-hating, and deeply antisemitic bully. The editor of a magazine devoted to lost languages resents the popularity of a younger, less sophisticated novelist, who happens to have been her student. A young woman tries to find her way after her fiancé calls off their wedding. With the contradictions, yearnings, imperfections, and longing for grace that beset all of us, these characters reach their own epiphanies—with results that are by turns breathtaking and heartbreaking.
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