🎤︎︎ New Five Books Episode: Ilana Kurshan on Books as Blueprints for Life

As we approach Simchat Torah, when we roll the scroll back to the beginning and start reading again, Ilana Kurshan’s Children of the Book: A Memoir of Reading Together reminds us of another sacred cycle: the books we read to our children again and again. Just like the Torah, those familiar stories shape us through their repetition, imprinting meaning with every return.

In this episode, Ilana Kurshan invites us into a life shaped by books – first as a child so immersed in All-of-a-Kind Family that its scenes felt like her own memories, and later as a mother discovering how reading aloud could bridge her love of literature with the demands of parenting. She shares how translating beloved works became a way to claim ownership over the stories she loved, and how her study of Jewish texts opened new ways of seeing herself, sometimes identifying more with the men of the Talmud than the women. Through tender, vivid moments, like reading a black-and-white board book to her newborn and connecting it to the creation of the world, Ilana reveals how books can shape not only our inner lives, but the worlds we help bring into being.

Children of the Book is Ilana Kurshan’s new memoir. Structured in five parts corresponding to the first five books of the Bible, she traces the profound parallels between the biblical narrative and the daily rhythms of parenthood. 

Ilana Kurshan is a mother of five and lives in Jerusalem. She is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature. She has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem as a translator and foreign rights agent, and as the books editor of Lilith Magazine. 

Ilana Kurshan’s Five Books

1. ⁠All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

2. ⁠A Bride for One Night by Ruth Calderon

3. ⁠Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

4. ⁠Three Days in Summer by Yossi Avni Levy (not yet available in English)

5. ⁠Children of the Book by Ilana Kurshan

Other Books Mentioned:

• From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind All-of-a-Kind Family by June Cummins and Alexandra Dunietz

• ”Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote” in Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges 

• Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson

• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

• A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary 

Other Episodes About All-of-a-Kind Family:

• Jennifer Weiner on Pushing Back against De-Jewified Last Names, “Women’s Fiction”, and Activism in the Face of Despair

• Tova Mirvis on Community, Belonging, and Forgiveness

What Else We’re Reading Now:

A Dog in Georgia by Lauren Grodstein

We hope you enjoy this week’s episode! Tell us what you think at [email protected] or by replying to this email!

The Five Books is a partner organization of the Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature! https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/