‘This book is Jacobson’s masterpiece’ Jonathan Freedland

'A work of genius' A.C. Grayling, The Times

Wild, angry and uproarious, Kalooki Nights is a darkly comic, timely novel of what it means to be human.


Max Glickman is son to an atheist boxer, Jack 'The Jew' Glickman, and a glamorous card-playing mother. Growing up in the peace and security of the 1950s Manchester suburbs, the word 'extermination' haunts his vocabulary and Nazis lurk in his imagination.

When his childhood friend Manny is released from prison, the tug of religion and history proves too strong to be ignored and Max must accept there is no refuge from the dead...

'Raging, contentious, hilarious, holy, deicidal, heart-breaking’ Sunday Telegraph