Walk into any Judaica bookstore and peruse the fiction shelves, and you’ll notice an intriguing imbalance: a full 80 to 90 percent of the stories are written by females. Why do the few intrepid male fiction writers choose to write novels, and what does their contribution add to the world of Torah literature?
Dovid Sussman was entertaining in his home in Israel when his guest’s attention turned to the bookcase. “He pulled one of my novels off the shelf,” Dovid relates, “and said, ‘Hey, this author has the same name as you!’ ”
He’s used to this reaction. Though Dovid has written four novels — the most recent, Prime Suspect (Torah Temimah Publications, 2013) — and is a regular contributor to Mishpacha, many people express surprise or curiosity when they find out he’s a fiction writer.
Frum males are a minority in the field of frum fiction, though some distinguished authors have been turning out fiction long before the explosion of contemporary frum literature: think Marcus Lehmann and Gershon Kranzler.
Those who do write fiction often face an imbalanced audience. “I don’t have any official statistics, but I believe that there are more female readers of fiction than male ones, just as there are more female writers,” says Dovid Sussman.
Create a free account to keep reading.
