Author Spotlight
Robert Kehlmann
After my mother died, I found a stash of intimate, politically informative love letters among her belongings. They were sent from Strasbourg and Paris between 1928 and 1932 by Reuven Borstein who later Hebraized his name to Barkat and, as an ally of David Ben Gurion, became a founder of the State of Israel. Reuven's letters described, in the most intimate ways, his forbidden pre-marital relationship with my then teenage mother, a girl from Jerusalem's Orthodox community. His graphic recollections of their intimate contacts reminded me of D.H. Lawrence’s depictions of such a forbidden relationship in Lady Chatterley's Lover, a novel of the same period.
Unsettling as I found these explicit descriptions of my mother's youthful romance, I recognized the historical importance of the letters: They offered an insightful eye-witness account of early 20th century Middle Eastern, European, and American history by a politically engaged, insightful man who would be an integral part of that history. After a four-decade career as an artist/art critic, I decided to try my hand at something I hadn't touched since college—writing fiction.
That decision launched a twelve-year journey of researching and writing a historical novel beginning with my family's perilous 1880s journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem. The Rabbi's Suitcase soon took on a life of its own. With a backdrop of Ottoman rule, WWI privations, and British Mandate uprisings, I fictionally reconstructed the lives of three generations of my mother's family, centering on her relationship with Reuven. With time, my mother was transposed into a character in a novel. I came to see how the conflicts and challenges she and Reuven faced foretold those that many free-thinking young people still face today.
The Rabbi's Suitcase is the story of two ambitious young lovers struggling to escape poverty and the inherited beliefs and customs of their families and cultures as they enter a modern world. My mother's uphill battle to define herself and Reuven's desires to fulfill his own ambitions generated disagreements over issues of politics, independence, gender inequality, and fidelity as each sought solutions that would allow them to reach their goals individually and as a couple.
Finding a new creative anchor after having been so deeply immersed for so long in research and writing, then working with my publisher on the editing and layout of the book, has been a slow transition. Gradually I've settled back into writing short stories that carry my family's past forward into my own life.
About the Author: Robert Kehlmann is an internationally acclaimed glass artist and art critic whose glasswork has been acquired by major museums and showcased in prestigious exhibitions and publications. He has been awarded NEA grants for both his artwork and critical writing. The Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass houses Kehlmann's artist and art critic archives.
The Rabbi's Suitcase, his debut novel, was a finalist in the Best New Fiction Category of the 2025 Best Book Awards and in the Historical Romance category of the HFC Book of the Year Awards. Research materials and early drafts of the novel are preserved at New York's YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. For a fuller look at both his artwork and writing, visit robertkehlmann.com.
Books:
Twentieth Century Stained Glass: A New Definition, Kyoto Shoin (1992)
The Inner Light: Sculpture by Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, University of Washington Press (2002)
The Rabbi's Suitcase, Koehler Books (2025)
Author Spotlight is an author interview exclusively for The US Review of Books and available through the Platinum Plus Review service. Author Spotlight interviews may be reprinted with full attribution to "The US Review of Books." |
