Once, in Golders Green - Rohan Kriwaczek

An insomniac who realises that he cannot escape his heritage. An elderly migr who still keeps a suitcase by the door. A clockmaker who obsesses over fixing his past. A Jewish community in London trying to find a place for tradition and ceremony in modern life. Rohan Kriwaczeks collection of short stories is engaging, touching and thought-provoking. He deftly addresses the nature of identity and asks what it means to be Jewish or, indeed, to be defined by religion at all in modern Britain.

Rohan Kriwaczek is a composer, musician and teacher whose 2006 work An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin made waves when it was revealed that such an art form did not exist. His controversial second novel On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer (And the Many Crimes of Tobias James) debates celebrity deaths and the public response. He lives in Brighton.

Is it a hoax? A surrealist joke? A misunderstood artistic statement? The rarefied world of independent publishers was buzzing with these questions yesterday after a new book about the ancient musical tradition of funerary violin was attacked for being fiction
The Guardian, on Art of the Funerary Violin

The fiddler who strung along the book world
The Daily Mail, on Art of the Funerary Violin

British Author Espies a Funerary Violin Vacuum and So Fills It
The New York Times, on Art of the Funerary Violin