Interview: February 20, 2025
In the ruins of postwar Europe, the world's leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a hair-raising journey to recover sacred books stolen by the Nazis. That is the intriguing premise of Steve Stern’s latest novel, A FOOL’S KABBALAH, which features numerous real-life historic figures. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Stern talks about his decision to write the book, his research process, the state of the publishing industry, and what he’s working on now.
Question: For how long has the idea for A FOOL’S KABBALAH been on your mind? And when did you first begin writing it?
Steve Stern: Some years ago, when I was working on my last novel, THE VILLAGE IDIOT, I read a biography of Gershom Scholem, the great scholar of Jewish mysticism, by George Prochnik. In it, there was a single paragraph recounting Scholem’s journey through the charnel house of Europe just after the war in search of Jewish books and artifacts confiscated by the Nazis and hidden by the Jews themselves. I was struck by the terrible irony of the scholar leaving his hallowed study to rescue books that had survived where the people to whom they belonged had not. I was immediately, perhaps fatalistically, drawn to follow Scholem’s journey --- if only in my imagination --- and to realize something of the revelation and heartbreak of his experience. I completed THE VILLAGE IDIOT sometime in 2021 and straightaway began writing A FOOL’S KABBALAH.
Q: THE VILLAGE IDIOT was also set in a distinct period during the 20th century. How do you conduct your research when you are writing a historical novel that is so rich with details?
SS: I love doing research and will read dozens of books on any subject I happen to be pursuing. But once I start writing, I allow the reading to sink into the sediment of my subconscious. That way, any details that manage to rise back to the level of consciousness during the composition of a story feel like products of my own imagination, as if I were the sole owner and proprietor of my own invented world --- as Faulkner said of his Yoknapatawpha County. This no doubt is a dishonest and wholly irresponsible process.
Q: THE VILLAGE IDIOT was hailed as “a frothy picaresque” sort of novel by the New York Times when it appeared. How would you classify A FOOL’S KABBALAH, which strikes a much different tone?
SS: Well, I wouldn’t call A FOOL’S KABBALAH especially “frothy,” though I’d argue that there’s a strong picaresque element. My characters are, after all, quixotic figures conducting their own personal campaigns against the premier evil of history, and with only the weapons of humor and a little magic. I’ll leave it to the reader to judge how well they succeed.
Q: There have been many changes in the book business since your first book, the story collection ISAAC AND THE UNDERTAKER’S DAUGHTER, was published. What is the change that you rue the most?
SS: Basically, after 40 years of publishing books, I’m still mystified by the business. I don’t know that the publishing world has ever been a particularly welcoming place, but it seems to me that, when I first began to publish, the major houses were more willing to take a chance on authors who challenged the conventional wisdom of what fiction should be. I’m speaking here of first-time authors. As for veteran, so-called mid-list writers --- among whom I’d include myself --- their fate seems purely determined by the bottom line. For those whose work has never found its way into “the conversation,” the publishing world has become by and large a closed shop. There but for the grace of Melville House, go I.
Q: Is there any way that book publishing has actually improved over the past 20 years?
SS: The great improvement in book publishing is, to my mind, the proliferation of excellent small presses, which have saved so many fine authors from being exiled in perpetuity to the outer dark. A number of such presses have achieved a stature exceeding that of the major trade houses, and have provided a haven for experimentation and originality that the old established houses have largely ceded.
Q: Is there one idea for a novel that you have carried with you for a long time that you now feel you probably will never decide to write? And why so?
SS: I’ve had an idea in mind for several decades now, which my better judgment assures me is foolish and misguided. It’s like an itch that you know will only spread to a rash if you scratch it, and perhaps end in infection. But lately, weakened by age and the prevailing mishegoss of our times, I’ve begun to scratch. I’m writing a novel that is finally a testament to a deeply unserious nature, if not acute cognitive decline. It concerns a tribe of arboreal Jews.
