{"title":"Emma Richler","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"sister-crazy-book-emma-richler-9780007118298","title":"Sister Crazy","description":"Both comic and deeply serious. A truly dazzling debut.’ BERYL BAINBRIDGE             Jemima Weiss grew up with a special feeling for Action Man, American westerns, the Knights of the Round Table, bagels with cheddar on the top and, above all else, her family: her rumpled father, glamorous mother and four remarkable siblings. Now grown into a worldly yet deeply troubled woman, Jem reflects on her days as a young girl, even as she struggles not to be engulfed by the present.             An edgy and deeply funny account about growing up in a close-knit family, and the difficulties of breaking away, in fact, of making oneself break away from the security of the family bonds.             An extraordinarily brilliant piece of writing. Emma Richler has chosen to tell a classic tale, one which writers often cut their teeth on, but the voice and the style she brings to this novel is simply astonishing. The combination of ingenious comedy and absolutely devastating bombshells of detail makes this book a rare thing indeed.             Great review coverage on hb publication. Featured in end-of-year round ups.             Festival appearances throughout 2002","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566656987409,"sku":"GOR004503442","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51094709338385,"sku":"GOR007368801","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007118295.jpg?v=1751441107"},{"product_id":"feed-my-dear-dogs-book-emma-richler-9780007196791","title":"Feed My Dear Dogs","description":"A warm, dark novel of family, distance and time from the author of the much-loved, highly-praised, prize-nominated Sister Crazy.             Feed My Dear Dogs begins in outright observational comedy and slides into ever darker regions, while never losing its sharp tongue and wicked wit. Jem Weiss is the middle child of five and experiences childhood more acutely, more joyously and more entertainingly than most. The five Weiss siblings crackle with intelligence, camaraderie, competitiveness and individuality; they have their own running gags, jargon, skits and power struggles; they share a bearlike but adored father and an unflappable and omnicompetent mother.             Jem's life hums with Shackleton and supernovas, boxing and cowboys, binocular doughnuts and naval underwear and at the centre of this galaxy of delights is her shining family. As Jem runs her childhood memories through her fingers, she entrances the reader with sharp observations, casual wisdom and tender wit. However, there's always something else looming, and now and again it sneaks up with some pressing tidings to impart – a child's terror at the prospect of moving on, growing up, leaving home.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49626295697681,"sku":"GOR003860921","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49758369218833,"sku":"GOR001562080","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52475106459921,"sku":"NLS9780007196791","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007196792.jpg?v=1750735889"},{"product_id":"be-my-wolff-book-emma-richler-9781101946527","title":"Be My Wolff","description":"\u003cb\u003eA nimble, extraordinarily moving novel about a sister and adopted brother with a one-of-a-kind connection\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eZachariah and Rachel Wolff are brother and sister. Well, not exactly. They are star-crossed lovers. Well, not exactly. Rachel is the cherished daughter born to a Russian family living in London, and Zachariah is her parents' adopted son, who arrived from the orphanage with one sweater, a head of rambunctious curls, and a dexterous set of fists, or fives, as he likes to call them. As children, they were as close as two people could be. But when they crossed this forbidden line, there was no going back. Now, as an adult, coping with Zach's estrangement from their formidable father, Rachel is determined to invent a family history for her beloved. And so the novel cartwheels through Zach's imagined ancestry--from a tavern-educated boxer in Dickensian times to a Hussar at the Battle of Borodino during the Napoleonic Wars. All the while, Zach and Rachel's troubles in the present are building to a new point of no return. Filled with art and science, fairy tales and folk songs, tsars and foundlings, epic battles in the prize ring and on the Eastern Front, \u003ci\u003eBe My Wolff\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of astonishing range and imagination: a love story, an exuberant adventure through time and place, a tale of our most unbreakable bonds.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49801911140625,"sku":"CIN1101946520G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1101946520.jpg?v=1750854047"},{"product_id":"feed-my-dear-dogs-book-emma-richler-9780676976717","title":"Feed My Dear Dogs","description":"In \u003cb\u003eFeed My Dear Dogs\u003c\/b\u003e, Emma Richler returns to the life of the Weiss family, first introduced to readers in her debut-and much-celebrated-book, \u003ci\u003eSister Crazy\u003c\/i\u003e, through a series of interconnected stories narrated by Jemima (Jem) Weiss. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Weisses are a tight unit of seven: father Yaakov, a gruff sportswriter whose love for his children is manifest in his stern instructions and impromptu boxing lessons; mother Frances, a wise and gentle beauty adored by her family, almost to the point of obsession by her husband; Ben, the most heroic of the siblings, by virtue of birth-order and also for knowing the answer to all questions; Jude, Jem's almost-twin, who is only fifteen months older than she and the most serious of the children, careful to point out the anti-Semitic leanings of Jem's literary heroes; Jem, the narrator, who would prefer to never leave the comforting confines of her family; delicate yet hilarious Harriet, Jem's only sister, who can sound like a little old lady or a sultry vixen, depending on what movie she's quoting; and Gus, the frail little boy who completes the circle at the beginning of the book with his birth and arrival home from the hospital. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFeed My Dear Dogs\u003c\/b\u003e beings with the family in London, where eight-year-old Jem and her sister attend a convent school to the consternation of most of the nuns, since not only are the Weiss children not Catholic, but, most perplexingly, they are half-Jewish. Not surprisingly, Jem prefers home to school. At home she is surrounded by the books she loves, (particularly \u003cb\u003eTintin\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eLe Morte d'Arthur\u003c\/b\u003e) and the comforts only a big, happy family can provide. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSoon, however, the family departs for Canada -Dad's country, as the children see it-where together they begin a new life, shuttling between a Montreal townhouse and a country home, and adapting to their new land -even creating the Weiss on Ice hockey team. No matter where the family is, each member is fiercely loyal to home. From the use of short notes: Out. Back soon. - Jude to a simple I'll be up in my room  yelled down the stairs, to Yaakov's frantic bellowing of Frances  through the house, the family keeps close tabs on its members, which also allows Jem to subconsciously control it: . . . my universe still the Universe, a place I wander with a slight swagger. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut the comfort and security of family can't last forever, Jem learns in high school, as Jude plans an extensive travel itinerary for himself and Ben contemplates moving out on his own. Meanwhile, Jem's burgeoning feminism pits her against her father and brothers while she battles with a burden of guilt over the near-drowning death of her youngest brother. Spiraling into a breakdown by the story's tragically beautiful end, Jem discovers that families simply can not remain fixed, like the stars in the galaxies, unchanged forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIntermingled through the story of the Weiss family are Jem's (and her siblings') encyclopedic knowledge of history, literature, film, religion and language. Richler also interweaves the almost mythic life story of Frances, the family's matriarch, into the book, and provides glimpses into Jem's troubled mind through a series of present-day conversations with her therapist, all of which serve to create a fully drawn portrait of Jem, her mother and the bond between them and the family as a whole.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50466541994257,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50466542813457,"sku":"CIN0676976719G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0676976719.jpg?v=1751136598"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-emma-richler.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}