A.J. Sidransky

A.J. Sidransky (est. birth – 1956, Bronx, NY) – A.J. Sidransky’s mystery and crime novels are deeply rooted in Jewish history and identity, often using the genre to explore “a little-known slice of Jewish history”. Born in the Bronx, New York, he grew up in a family of avid readers and developed an early interest in both mystery fiction and sweeping historical novels. He has lived for many years in Washington Heights, Manhattan, a neighborhood that serves as the setting for much of his work, and spends part of each year in the Dominican Republic, whose history and culture feature prominently in his novels. His family’s experiences during the Holocaust, together with his longstanding interest in Jewish refugee history, are central influences on his writing.

His three “Forgiving” novels (see below, 2013, 2015, 2021), address the dynamics of Diaspora Jewish existence, for example of Holocaust refugees in the Dominican Republic and in Washington Heights. A key protagonist is Detective Tolya Kurchenko, a Russian-Jewish detective in Washington Heights, whose investigation into the murder of a Holocaust survivor forces him to confront his own heritage. Forgiving Stephen Redmond, for example, examines how Holocaust survivors passed their intergenerational trauma to their children and how that trauma affects their adult faith. The plot centers on a “murder to protect the soul,” using Jewish concepts of forgiveness and repentance (often discussed in relation to Yom Kippur) as a lens for the crime. Incident at San Miguel  focuses on a Jewish Cuban family torn apart by the Cuban Revolution, depicting how the community was caught between capitalism and communist ideology.  [Google/AI]

Sidransky, A.J. [Pete Gonzalvez & Tolya Kurchenko #1] (Forgiving Máximo Rothman [pb, Berwick Court Publishing, 2013]) 978-0988954007

Sidransky, A.J., [Pete Gonzalvez & Tolya Kurchenko #3] (Forgiving Mariela Camacho [pb, Black Opal Books, 2015]) 978-1953434067

Sidransky, A.J., [Pete Gonzalvez & Tolya Kurchenko #2] (Forgiving Stephen Redmond [pb, Black Opal Books, 2021] 9781953434524

Sidransky, A.J., (Incident at San Miguel) [hc, Black Opal Books, 2023] 978-1953434999 [pb, Black Opal Books, 2023] 978-1960050182

Note: The internal chronology of the Rothman family story deviates from the publication order. Stephen Redmond (2021) functions as the second installment, while Mariela Camacho (2015) is effectively the third. This is because Stephen Redmond fills in the missing history between the first and second published novels and answers questions that were left unresolved in both earlier books. – ChatGPT]