Ilana Masad
Israeli-American Author Ilana Masad on Telling a Complicated Story of Jewish Grief
Ilana Masad’s debut novel, All My Mother’s Lovers, tells the tale of queer Jewish 27-year-old named Maggie. At the start of the novel, Maggie is in bed with her girlfriend-who-is-not-quite-her-girlfriend-yet when she gets a call from her brother telling her their mom has died in a car crash. She is numb, but immediately springs into action — buying her flights, figuring out the service at synagogue and shiva, and so on. When she gets to her parents’ house, her brother is acting out and her father is not functioning. Maggie finds letters that her mother left with her will, addressed to different men. After the funeral, she decides, she will set out and deliver them to their intended recipients.
The book takes place over just a few days, and focuses in on what it means to lose a loved one, as well as the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. It’s everything you want, and need, in a book that deals with grief and complicated families — all through a Jewish lens. I had the chance to ask Masad, an Israeli-American writer, a few questions over e-mail, where we talked about Jewish grief rituals, her own relationship with her Jewishness, and how she’s keeping calm with her debut novel coming out during a pandemic.
