Review of 'Happy New Years' by Maya Arad

Maya Arad is a leading author of Israeli fiction, but she doesn’t live in Israel. Arad, who grew up in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, has been living in California for the last twenty years. The Hebrew Teacher, her collection of three novellas−the first of her books to be translated into English−won the National Jewish Book Award for Hebrew Fiction in Translation in January 2025. Now readers have the opportunity to read one of her novels in English.

Happy New Years by Maya Arad, translated by Jessica Cohen (New Vessel Press, August 5, 2025) is the story of Leah, as told in yearly Rosh Hashana letters sent to her classmates from a teacher’s college in Israel. Instead of just bearing good wishes for the upcoming Jewish New Year, each letter tells the story of Leash’s life during the previous 12 months, in exhaustive detail.

The annual mail starts with a recap of the episodes mentioned in the letter dated the year before, to remind both recipients and the novel’s readers of their importance in Leah’s life. An update on these milestones in Leah’s life follows, and then there is her news. Leah informs her friends of developments in her love life, stories of her children growing up, and accounts of her career changes.

Her best friend, Mira, is the recipient of postscripts with further insights into Leah’s true feelings about where her life has taken her, complete with apologies and confessions. “To you I can write what is truly in my heart, with no masks and guises,” Leah notes.

“I came to America on an educational mission, to teach Jewish children who, one day, may themselves make Aliyah,” Leah writes in her 1970 message. “I am living in the United States for now, and who knows what the future will bring?” Two years later, Leah mentions that she and her husband are considering Aliyah. “The circumstances are finally ripe for making a significant change in our lives.” Yet her Aliyah plans fall through. “I’ve built a life for myself here that I’m unwilling and unable to walk away from,” she writes in 1986.

The yearly Rosh Hashana messages recount Leah’s ups and downs, and one can see how she matures through the years. This epistolary novel succeeds in telling her story, and readers are compelled to turn the pages to learn whether she will find true love or successfully handle the challenges she faces.

Still, there are parts of what Leah writes in the narrative that will frustrate readers. Detailed reports of what it was like to fly in an airplane for the first time, an explanation of why Chicago is called ‘the Windy City’, how daily life in America is easier because of dishwashers, and the advantages of working with a computer–these elements show the passage of time but not things anyone would naturally include in a Rosh Hashana letter.

Still, this is a minor observation as the overall format of the novel succeeds in telling a story of a woman’s life; her struggles, loves, and growth; the friendships she makes and the friendships she loses; and how one can still be an Israeli even while keeping a permanent residency overseas.

Leah ends each mail with a message marking her unwavering optimism about the Jewish New Year. “May it be a year full of dreams!” she writes. “May it be a wonderful year, a magical year, a year of change and growth!” Readers will share Leah’s positive outlook on life with eager anticipation of her next Happy New Year letter.

 

Maya Arad is the author of twelve books of Hebrew fiction, as well as studies in literary criticism and linguistics. Born in Israel in 1971, she received a PhD in linguistics from University College London and for the past twenty years has lived in California where she is writer in residence at Stanford University’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies.