Hadassah Magazine's 2017 Harold U. Ribalow Prize Award to Rose Tremain for The Gustav Sonata

NEW YORK - Jan. 25, 2018 - PRLog -- Hadassah Magazine is pleased to announce that award-winning novelist Rose Tremain, author of The Gustav Sonata (W.W. Norton), is the recipient of the 2017 Harold U. Ribalow Prize, according to Lisa Hostein, executive editor of the award-winning publication. The Gustav Sonata is also the recipient of a 2017 National Jewish Book Award.

For the past 34 years, Hadassah Magazine has awarded the Ribalow Prize to an author who has created an outstanding work of fiction on a Jewish theme. The Gustav Sonata is the first of Rose Tremain's novels that touches on Jewish life. Tremain, who resides in Norfolk, England, is the author of 14 novels and five short story collections.

The other 2017 Ribalow Award finalists were The Beautiful Possible (Harper Perennial) by Amy Gottlieb and As Close to Us as Breathing (Little Brown) by Elizabeth Poliner. This year's judges included Alan M. Tigay, Hadassah Magazine's editor emeritus; Sharon Pomerantz, author of Rich Man; and Jim Shepard, the 2016 Ribalow Prize winner for The Book of Aron.

Set in neutral Switzerland before, during and after World War II, The Gustav Sonata is about two boys—Anton, a Jewish musical prodigy, and Gustav, the amiable son of an anti-Semitic mother—whose lifelong connection ebbs and flows, yet endures into maturity. In delicately penetrating prose, Tremain looks at matters of unspoken love, loyalty, music and sacrifice.

Salman Rushdie says of the author: "Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists, and deserves, with this brilliant novel, to reach a wide new audience."

Tremain's The Gustav Sonata "is a beautiful story of an improbable and complex relationship set against the backdrop of the war, but this is not a Holocaust story," says Hostein. "Rather it demonstrates the fragility of an artist and the resilience of one who keeps him going. This is an important work of historical fiction that plays itself out with the rhythm and force of the musical genre for which it is named."

Marlene Post, the chair of Hadassah Magazine, adds: "Once again, the Ribalow Prize winner is one whose work adds an important element to the canon of Jewish-themed literature. We are proud to bestow this special award on Rose Tremain."

Hadassah National President Ellen Hershkin states, "Rose Tremain's The Gustav Sonata is a profoundly moving novel with a powerful message that resonates with today's audiences – 'to become the person you are meant to be.'"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Born in London in 1943, Rose Tremain was one of only five female writers to be included in Granta's original list of 20 Best of Young British Novelists in 1983.  Her novels and short stories have been published in 27 countries and have won many prizes, including being shortlisted for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the 2012 Wellcome Book Prize, for A Man of His Time; the 2008 Orange Prize for The Road Home; the 1999 Whitbread Award for Music and Silence; the 1994 Prix Femina Etranger and the 1992 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Sacred Country; the 1989 Sunday Express Book of the Year for Restoration, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and the 1984 Giles Cooper Award for Temporary Shelter, a play.

ABOUT THE HAROLD U. RIBALOW AWARD:

Hadassah Magazine's annual literary award was established in 1983 by the friends and family of the late Harold U. Ribalow, an editor, writer and anthologist known for his passion for Jewish literature and his interest in promoting the work of new writers. Ribalow was the author of some 15 books that shared in common aspects of Jewish interest, but which covered a wide range of subjects. In addition, Ribalow was the founder and editor of Hadoar, for many years the only Hebrew weekly in the world outside Israel and a member of the Jewish Academy of Arts & Sciences. In addition to Jim Shepard, recent recipients of the Harold U. Ribalow Award include: Molly Antopol (The UnAmericans, W.W. Norton 2015); Helene Wecker (The Golem and the Jinni, Harper 2014); and Francesca Segal (The Innocents, Hachette Books 2013).

ABOUT W.W. Norton

W.W. Norton & Company was founded with the premise that "books are the weapons of ideas" and has consistently published books that reflect their social moment and resonate well beyond.  W.W. Norton's author roster includes Nobel Prize winners Nadine Gordimer, Seamus Heaney, Eric Kandel, Paul Krugman, Edmund Phelps, Joseph Stiglitz and Harold Varmus. Pulitzer Prize winners include Dean Acheson, Erik Erikson, Joseph Lash, Annette Gordon-Reed, Maxine Kumin, Michael Lewis and William Taubman.  Publishing landmarks include The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, Thirteen Days by Robert F. Kennedy; Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, and The 9/11 Commission Report.

Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA) is the largest Jewish women's organization in the United States. With 330,000 members, associates and supporters, Hadassah brings Jewish women together to effect change and advocate on critical issues such as medical care and research, women's empowerment, and the security of Israel. Through the Hadassah Medical Organization's two hospitals, the world-renowned trauma center and the leading research facility in Jerusalem, Hadassah supports the delivery of exemplary patient care to over a million people every year. HMO serves without regard to race, religion or nationality and earned a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in 2005 for building "bridges to peace" through equality in medical treatment. For more information, visit www.hadassah.org.