Lev Raphael Books In Order

Let’s Get Criminal

Curiosity turns to obsession at the State University of Michigan. Professor Nick Hoffman can’t understand how his supercilious new office mate Perry Cross beat out other candidates for the brand new position in Canadian Studies. How did Cross get hired when he’s under-qualified? Just as troubling, Nick discovers that Cross’s past intersects with his own in disturbing ways. When Cross is found dead and the verdict is murder, Nick becomes a prime suspect since he was one of the last people to see Cross the evening he was killed. Nick has no choice but to investigate on his own.

The Edith Wharton Murders

Chaos hits the State University of Michigan when two bitterly rival Edith Wharton societies are brought together for the same conference. Its reluctant organizer, Professor Nick Hoffman, is desperate to get tenure, and when there’s a murder, his only chance of saving his academic career is finding the killer.

The Death of a Constant Lover

Nick Hoffman’s been warned by his chair at the State University of Michigan to avoid trouble if he has any hopes of getting tenure. But his presence at the scene of a murder that involves a favorite student immediately threatens his position at the university, and soon after, his life.

Little Miss Evil

Raphael writes with ease and obvious joy, raising a flag to the Zeitgeist with gleeful abandon. His pacing hums along brilliantly while his descriptions never lack for flavor…
. A convivial read, Little Miss Evil doesn’t require a high degree of sleuthing capabilities on the part of the reader. It’s loaded with spry, humorous characterizations and biting side comments, and Raphael’s gift for detail is both astounding and useful.

Burning Down the House

Nick Hoffman’s State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair. With his professional life a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick discovers that he’s not only attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life, but also the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. There’s certainly no shortage of suspects, only solid clues. The decisions Nick faces may change his life forever…
if he survives.

Tropic of Murder

It’s winter, but academic madness is in full bloom at the State University of Michigan. Untenured English professor Nick Hoffman is trying to keep out of the line of fire as three senior professors battle to be department chair all of whom hate each other and demand Nick’s support. The situation implodes when an emergency meeting turns the department, and normal academic procedure, upside down. In an intense atmosphere of mounting crisis, Nick and his colleagues lose rights and autonomy, and he is desperate for a quick getaway. Nick’s partner, Stefan, suggests an idyllic week at a Caribbean Club Med. The island of Serenity, however, proves to be anything but serene. Once again, Edith Wharton scholar Nick Hoffman, who grew up in New York City without even being mugged, finds himself face to face with murder. His winter vacation in paradise becomes a nightmare as he learns the truth of the warning that You can run, but you can t hide. And on a tiny island, there s nowhere even to run…

Hot Rocks

When Professor Nick Hoffman and his partner Stefan return from a Caribbean vacation, Nick decides it’s time to get back in shape at Michigan Muscle, a luxurious health club near the State University of Michigan. But every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick finds a dead trainer in the steam room, he’s drawn into a web of passion and privilege like nothing he s experienced before. The prime suspect because he discovered the body, his academic and personal lives take unanticipated turns, and he gets a real workout in the bittersweet denouement.

Winter Eyes

A haunting and remarkable novel, Winter Eyes is a tale of family secrets, silence, relevation and the hope for healing and change. A spell binding achievement, Winter Eyes richly fulfills the promise Booklist saw when it hailed Dancing on Tisha B’av as the debut of ‘a bright new talent in American fiction.’

The German Money

‘Lev Raphael is a daring writer one who will not be restrained by genre, but who tells his story with all the tools at his command. The German Money combines all of Raphael’s estimable talents, delivering an emotional thriller about a totally believable contemporary family coming to terms with fifty years of silence.’ Edmund WhiteBest known for Dancing on Tisha B Av, the groundbreaking story collection exploring the lives of children of Holocaust survivors, Lev Raphael is also the author of five popular mysteries. Now he combines his talents in a story of emotional suspense. Paul has spent his life running from New York, the city of his birth; from his beautiful beshert; from contact with his own siblings; but mostly from his mother, a Holocaust survivor of inexplicable coldness. Upon her mysterious death, the children face shocking questions. What caused her to die? Why did she divide their inheritance so that Paul, the least favorite son, was singled out to receive the most, the dreaded ‘German money,’a bequest of a million dollars accrued from German reparations to survivors…
a gift as cynical as it is generous. ‘Lev Raphael s new novel is a powerful, haunting and erotic tale. The stunning narrative builds to a shocking denouement and kept me turning pages faster and faster to learn the truth.’ Linda FairsteinLev Raphael is the author of thirteen books and known internationally as an insightful chronicler of the lives of the children of Holocaust survivors. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in two dozen anthologies, including American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories. He is a book critic for National Public Radio and mysteries columnist for the Detroit Free Press.

Secret Anniversaries of the Heart

‘The power of Raphael’s stories comes from his passion for telling the truth, however painful.’ Hadassah Magazine

‘His characters are voices of reason, observers rather than judges. The prose is poetic, the sex scenes sweat with passion.’ Los Angeles Times

When Lev Raphael published the controversial story collection Dancing on Tisha B’av, he broke new ground in the publishing world. Never before in one book had an American writer dealt with the conflicts between homosexuality and traditional Judaism, linked the chilling mind diseases of antisemitism and homophobia, and borne witness not only to the legacy of Holocaust survivors but the suffering and conflicts of their children. Winner of the prestigious Lambda Literary Award, Raphael opened the door to a new kind of American Jewish fiction.

Secret Anniversaries of the Heart unites the best stories from Dancing on Tisha B’av with 12 new stories, including one never before published. Here we encounter tales of antisemitism on the college campus, of self hatred and body obsession, and of survivor parents whose only response to the Holocaust is to isolate themselves, unconsciously committing a kind of emotional suicide.

In a collection that encompas*ses over 25 years of his award winning stories, Lev Raphael proves himself a visionary like James Baldwin and shares Anita Brookner’s gift for dramatizing the pain of seemingly quiet lives in stories that are both passionate and precise.

Lev Raphael is the author of 17 books published in a dozen languages. A winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the star packed Who We Are: On Being and Not Being A Jewish American Writer Schocken/Random House. The author of a popular mystery series, he performs all over the country and hosts a weekly book show on NPR.

Coming Out of Shame

Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael expose the role shame has come to play in the lives of gay men and lesbians. The authors break the silence surrounding gay and lesbian experience so that individuals can ‘come out’ of shame and begin a path toward personal growth and acceptance.

Stick Up for Yourself

First published in 1990, this perennial best seller has helped countless children build self esteem and assertiveness skills. Newly revised and updated, it’s the ultimate resource for any kid who s ever been picked on at school, bossed around, blamed for things he or she didn t do, or treated unfairly and for any kid who sometimes feels frustrated, angry, powerless, or scared. Simple words and real life examples show how children can stick up for themselves with other kids including bullies and teasers, big sisters and brothers, even grown ups. Kids learn how to build relationships, become responsible, manage their anger, grow a feelings vocabulary, make good choices, solve problems, set goals, and store happiness and pride. Questions from real kids are paired with answers about how to handle specific situations calmly, confidently, and effectively. A special note to parents and teachers explores the self esteem backlash and explains what self esteem really is and why kids today need it more than ever. A wealth of practical, encouraging, realistic advice, this empowering little book is also recommended for parents, teachers, and counselors.

Writing a Jewish Life

Writing a Jewish Life chronicles novelist Lev Raphael’s struggle to claim both his religious and sexual identities, and the happiness he subsequently found. Until he reached his mid 20s, the author felt alienated from other Jews, ambivalent about his homosexuality; or as he puts it, ‘twice strange…
in each community , different, lesser, ashamed.’ A son of Holocaust survivors, Raphael grew up in an unmistakably Jewish but nonreligious home. However, as an adult he initiated his own affiliations with Judaism: He had a bar mitzvah at age 30, went to Israel twice, and fell in love with a Jewish man. It was ‘coming out as a Jew,” he writes, that ‘ultimately made it possible for me to come out as a gay man and then work at uniting the two identities.’ Attesting to his journey is the contrast between his confused childhood and the joyful domestic life he now shares with his lover, Gersh, and their two sons.

My Germany

Lev Raphael grew up loathing everything German. A son of Holocaust survivors, haunted by his parents’ suffering and traumatic losses under Na*zi rule, he was certain that Germany was one place in the world he would never visit. Those feelings shaped his Jewish and gay identity, his life, and his career. Then the barriers of a lifetime began to come down, as revealed in this moving memoir. After his mother’s death, while researching her war years, Raphael found a distant relative living in the very city where she had been a slave laborer. What would he learn if he actually traveled to the place where his mother had found freedom and met his father? Not long after that epochal trip, a German publisher bought several of his books for translation. Raphael was launched on book tours in Germany, discovering not so much a new Germany, but a new self: someone unafraid to face the past and transcend it.