(JTA) — Idra Novey, author of the novel “Ways to Disappear,” has won the $100,000 Sami Rohr 2017 Prize for Jewish Literature, which was announced Wednesday by the Jewish Book Council at a ceremony at New York’s Jewish Museum. Her book explores a translator’s search for a missing author in modern-day Brazil.
Runner-up Daniel Torday received the $18,000 Choice Award for “The Last Flight of Poxl West.” The Rohr Prize, which has been given annually since 2007, considers works of fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. It was created by the late businessman and philanthropist Sami Rohr to recognize emerging writers who articulate the Jewish experience as determined by a specific work, as well as the author’s potential to make significant ongoing contributions to Jewish literature.