Rubens, Bernice (1923-2004), was a British author known for her novels about Jewish family life. Rubens won the 1970 Booker Prize for her novel The Elected Member (1969), published in the United States as Chosen People. The Booker Prize is the United Kingdom’s highest literary award.
In The Elected Member, Rubens tells the story of a close-knit Jewish family living in the East End area of London. A son in the family grows up to become a successful lawyer and then, at the age of 41, becomes a drug addict. The novel describes the effect of the addiction on the lawyer and his family.
Rubens examines Jewish families, their cultures, and their histories in Brothers (1983) and I, Dreyfus (1999). Brothers describes the history of six generations of a Jewish family, beginning with their flight from Russia in the 1920’s. In I, Dreyfus, a Jewish headmaster named Dreyfus is accused of killing a child. Dreyfus tells his story to a literary agent who visits him in prison. Dreyfus confronts the denial of his faith as he describes his experiences. Kingdom Come (1990) is a historical novel set in the 1600’s about an actual figure in Jewish history who claimed to be the Messiah.
Rubens’s first novel was Set on Edge (1960). Her other novels include Madame Souzatzka (1962), Mate in Three (1966), Sunday Best (1971), Go Tell the Lemming (1973), I Sent a Letter to My Love (1975), The Ponsonby Post (1977), A Five-Year Sentence (1978), Spring Sonata (1979), Birds of Passage (1981), Mr. Wakefield’s Crusade (1985), Our Father (1987), A Solitary Grief (1991), Mother Russia (1992), Autobiopsy (1993), Yesterday in the Back Lane (1995), The Waiting Game (1997), and The Sergeants’ Tale (2003).
Bernice Ruth Rubens was born on July 23, 1923, in Cardiff, Wales, and received a B.A. degree from the University of Wales. She also was a motion-picture director and screenplay writer. Rubens died on Oct. 13, 2004.
