Literature

The author

Jill Culiner divides her time between Europe and Canada. His book, Finding Home: in the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers published by Sumach Press in 2004 won the Tanenbaum Literary Prize, Canadian Jewish History section.
His crime novels, Death by Slanderous Tongue and Sad Summer in Biarritz, show the much less touristy side of France.

Jill's books

Non-Fiction History
Finding Home
In the Footsteps

of the Jewish Fusgeyers


ISBN: 1-894549-40-6

First edition :

published in April 2004

Ssecond edition:

publication in December 2020


The Fusgeyers were thousands of Jews who left Romania on foot around 1900, to seek freedom in the new world. One hundred years later, Jill Culiner followed in their footsteps, crossing Romania on foot and Europe by train to end up in the Far West of Canada, where the Jewish agricultural commu-nities settled.

Finding Home
1er éditeur Sumach Press,2004
Distributeur actuel :
Now and Then Books
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Finding Home

2nd edition appeared
in December 2020

> Links
Ebook version in January 2021
> Book2 read.com
Finding Home

2nd edition appeared
in December 2020


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A Contrary Journey
With Velvel Zbarzher, Band

ISBN print: 9781910461433

ISBN ebook: 9781910461525

Published by Claret Press, -September 2021


The Old Country, how did it smell? Sound? Was village life as cosy as popular myth would have us believe? Was there really a strong sense of community? Perhaps it was another place altogether.

In nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, Jewish life was ruled by Hasidic rebbes or the traditional Mitnagdim, and religious law dictated every aspect of daily life. Secular books were forbidden; indepen-dent thinkers were threatened with moral rebuke, magical retribution, and expulsion. But the Maskilim, proponents of the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, were determined to create a modernJew, to found schools where children could learn science, geography, languages, and history.

Velvel Zbarzher, rebel and glittering star of fusty inns, spent his life singing his poems to a loyal audience of poor workers and craftsmen, and his attacks condemning the religious stronghold resulted in banishment and itinerancy. By the time Velvel died in Constantinople in 1883, the Haskalah had triumphed and the modern Jew had been created. But modernization and assimilation hadn’t brought an end to anti-Semitism.

Armed with a useless nineteenth-century map, a warm lumpy coat, and a healthy dose of curiosity Jill Culiner trudged through the snow in former Galicia, the Russian Pale, and Romania searching for Velvel, the houses where he lived, and the bars where he sang. But she was also on the lookout for a vanished way of life in Austria, Turkey, and Canada.

A Contrary Journey
Claret Press , 2021

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Those Absent

On the Great Hungarian Plain

ISBN print: 978-1-910461-43-3

ISBN ebook: 978-1-910461-52-5

Published by Claret Press

February 2024


Most compelling for a curious (even nosey) person was being allowed to penetrate this unfamiliar, exotic microcosm: Hungarian provincial society.

When Jill Culiner arrived on the Great Hungarian Plain, she was seeking a trace of the lost Jewish rural community. She discovered a country shaped by early tribal conquerors and foreign domination.

Certainly nothing is ever what it seems; there are grim secrets to be uncovered, and history with its pogroms, violence and hatred of ‘the other’ is anything but laudable. But if we are appalled by human behaviour, there is also humour in our contradictions.

Thirsty for juicy gossip, Culiner offers a droll, often satirical portrait of small town life. Local residents share dreams, romances, fears and suspicion. Black marketeers, peasants, the Roma, former nobles and party girls, rub shoulders with lapsed communists and elderly members of the Hitler Youth movement. And ever hidden in deep shadow, is the story of the vanished Jews.

Those Absent

Claret Press

Published February 2024

https://www.claretpress.com/book/those-absent

Those Absent
Claret Press , 2024

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Mystery Novels
Death by
Slanderous Tongue
ISBN-13: 978-1-894549-64-6

Publication: April 2007

Published by Club Lighthouse Publishing


Epineux-le-Rainsouin is a sleepy village where just the act of washing windows is cause for excite-ment for the local gossips. when the rural guard, Didier Blot, disappears, rumors of his sexual misfortunes and his environmental activism begin to circulate. An ironic and funny book with a humorous dialogue, recom-mended for those who like a good thriller with an original style.

Slanderous Tongue retraces rural France that has disappeared in favor of modern industrialization.

Death by Slanderous Tongue

Published by Club Lighthouse Publishing

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Sad Summer in Biarritz

ISBN : 978-1-77217-066-5

Parution : 2017

Publiée par Club Lighthouse Publishing


The narrator, a Canadian woman, hopes to change her life by moving to Biarritz. Having escaped a devastating relationship with the mentally uns-table Dominique, she is determined to make new friends and find the perfect mate. But in this summer resort frequented by couples and families, available singles are lonely people, too often embittered by romantic failure. And if the young artist Vinnie has promised entry into local society, he remains an illusive figure.

When Vinnie’s body surfaces at the Pointe des Fous new rumours circulate. Had he really been a fortune hunter, a seducer and blackmailer, or just a gentle, over-sensitive man, a loser in love and friendship? The police have concluded his death was accidental, but doesn’t everything point to murder? Or is the narrator over-reacting? Perhaps loneliness and isolation have made her suspicious, for love is as unattainable as ever, and threatening letters from Dominique are arriving with increasing frequency.

Sad Summer in Biarritz, is a mystery, a story of the desperately lonely search for love, and a satirical portrait of French nouveau riche society in the 1980s.

Sad Summer in Biarritz

Published by Club Lighthouse Publishing

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Sad Summer in Biarritz

Audiobook

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Sad Summer in Biarritz

Book Trailer

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Romance Books
See the Romances
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