Adam Mansbach's latest novel, The End of the Jews, was published in March 2008 by Spiegel & Grau/Doubleday. An ambitious and affecting family drama and a sweeping tour of race, religion, art and identity in 20th century America, The End of the Jews features grandfather-and-grandson graffiti bombing missions, a Czech girl passing for black in America, relatives betraying each other through novels, stoned Bar Mitzvah DJs forcing people to dance the hora to Eric B & Rakim's microphone fiend, swaggering Jewish geniuses remaking postwar American culture, and much more.

Mansbach's previous novel is the critically-acclaimed bestseller Angry Black White Boy, or The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay (Crown, 2005), a satire about race, whiteness and hip hop that is currently taught at more than forty universities across the country. A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005, Angry Black White Boy is currently in development as a feature film.

Mansbach is an inaugural recipient of the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant (FAAR), funded by the Ford Foundation. The grant recognizes artists whose work "innovates beyond that which is already applauded in the present" and is intended to "usher in the next generation of artists who reshape the artistic landscape."

Mansbach's other books include the novel Shackling Water (Doubleday, 2002), the poetry collection genius b-boy cynics getting weeded in the garden of delights (Subway & Elevated, 2002), and the short story anthology A Fictional History of the United States With Huge Chunks Missing (Akashic, 2006), which he co-edited with T Cooper.

Mansbach is the founding editor of the pioneering '90s hip hop journal Elementary, and a former Artistic Consultant to Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies. His work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, The New York Times, Vibe, JazzTimes, Wax Poetics, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Guilt & Pleasure, Poets & Writers, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop (Basic Civitas, 2007), The Best Music Writing (Da Capo, 2004), and elsewhere. He also writes a weekly political column for NewsOne.com.

A dynamic public speaker whose lectures combine elements of spoken-word, hip hop, comedy, and traditional scholarship to address the complexities of identity, hip hop, history, literature, and popular culture, Mansbach has spoken on college campuses across the country. He teaches writing at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Praise for The End of the Jews:

"Smart... engaging... exquisite. Original in the way it explores the creative interchange between blacks and Jews and the give-and-take dynamic of artistic partnership. Mansbach's characters are sharply drawn... the creative partnerships among artists are suggestively and beautifully portrayed." —New York Times Book Review

"Mansbach has a talent for writing full, memorable characters that seem untidy and complex... [his] prose crackles with insight. The End of the Jews spans three generations, two countries, a half-dozen subcultures, a dozen characters and a handful of narrative styles and literary techniques... a radiant world in Mansbach's hands." —San Francisco Chronicle

"A beautiful, funny, heartbreaking book that manages to take on art, love, identity, class anxiety, being Jewish, and wishing you were black. Very few writers could have attempted all this without farcical results. Adam Mansbach succeeds, brilliantly. [He] displays a seemingly magical gift for writing about any place or milieu. One of the perils of fiction of this scope is that it can degenerate into faux social history and the characters become window dressing for the sweep of events. Mansbach is too good for that, his people too real in all their pain and energy and weakness. No plot summary could ever convey the emotional power of this novel, a meditation on identity, on family, and on art, and what it can cost the people who love the artist. The End of the Jews is an intense, painful, poignant book." —The Boston Globe

"Compelling... Mansbach makes this turf his own through powerful descriptive passages and keen social analysis. The book is a saga of relentless self-creation. It celebrates the exuberance of youth and tenderly acknowledges the difficulties of aging as Tristan's mind and body begin to fail him. Its intelligence and imagination are a delight." —Washington Post Book World

"There's an intriguing twist to this family saga. The End of the Jews is set against some of the great events of the 20th century, each of which figures in how the characters see themselves, their relationships and their art. Mansbach brings off some extraordinary scenes. Unique in my reading experience... The defining moment comes when Tris confronts the tension between his aspirations and his authentic self -- the challenge of finding "something no one can deny." That's the real story here, and it's one that never ends." —The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"It must be said, straight out: Mansbach's prose is a pleasure to read. Witty, gritty, often melodic, it rolls unapologetically through a well-sustained balance of crass and polished, real and imaginary, dramatic and humorous. Self-reflection permeates the narrative, which never takes itself too seriously but still strikes truths both illuminating and heartbreaking. The characters are round, rich, complex and intense. They are characters you can trust to come out of their battles intact, displaying their open wounds and their subsequent scars - many acquired through their interactions with each other - in their inner observations. And Mansbach's physical depictions of the numerous non-white characters are effortlessly and refreshingly descriptive, rather than classificatory, revealing a natural color blindness in both author and characters that should not seem as unusual in white-written literature as it does. This book, ultimately a story of art, family and personal integrity, offers Jews a chance to do two of the things we do best: laugh at ourselves and contemplate our place in the world. As a provocative, masterfully written exploration of cultural identity, it rightfully earns itself a place on shelves and coffee tables worldwide." —Jerusalem Post

"Tantalizingly close to greatness… a stirring panoramic snapshot. The ambition and artfulness in the majority of the novel’s pages earns it the right to be part of the same conversation as Call It Sleep and The Ghost Writer." —Washington City Paper

"A poignant, serious, and often hilarious piece of modern fiction. The author possesses a powerful control of language, a refined imagination and an extrodinary empathy. Clever, hip, broadly informed… Mansbach is at his best, provoking us to think hard about origins, identity, race and ethnicity." —Haaretz (Israel)

"[A] crisp, energetic tale... Mansbach is a gifted and talented storyteller. His latest book brims with prose that soars and wit that is reaffirming." —Tucson Citizen

"A serious and sweeping multigenerational epic full of determined artists, identity politics and fraught relationships. It features hip-hop bar mitzvah DJs and urban-graffiti expeditions. But it spends more time examining the creative process and the shifting landscape of the American Jewish Diaspora. With roving, insightful omniscience—ricocheting empathetically from grandfather to grandson, grandmother to girlfriend—Mansbach considers the predicaments of artists and the pratfalls of love. A deeply thoughtful novel full of characters and conflicts. And unlike the fictional Tristan Brodsky, who asserts that literary truth takes no prisoners, Mansbach’s book suggests an author who is careful and humane—more reverential of human complexity and more impressive for it." —Time Out New York (read full review here)

"The End of the Jews swings with grit and self-knowledge. Mansbach nails the itchy resentment embedded in the symbiotic relationship between artist and subject—the four characters often find their inspiration in each other and in their continued failure to connect." —Time Out Chicago

"What's a young writer to do when he has powerhouses like Phillip Roth and Saul Bellow as literary forefathers? Take them on, of course. [In] his clever, energetic new novel, Mansbach continues to explore his preoccupations with race and identity. But his sympathetic portrayal of women in the story -- and even of the cantankerous Tristan Brodsky -- show that, like graffiti artists, he can write on even larger canvasses when he wants to." —Santa Cruz Sentinel

"[Mansbach] has a big brain. He uses it with skill in his latest novel The End of the Jews, which marries our 21st century’s postmodern overload with the last century’s clumsy geopolitical and artistic fumblings, without sacrificing generational sensitivity." —Huffington Post

"With unparalleled artistic energy and intellectual rigor, Mansbach creates a riveting story through which he explores the intersections of black and Jewish culture in America. 'It is a fat, frenzied, polemical novel, broad-ranging and morally messy,' our narrator describes a book written by one of the novel's principal characters, Tristan Brodsky. The capsule description aptly describes Mansbach's novel, as well. It's the kind of Jewish vision that in its expansiveness, its picaresque treatment of the Jew across the broad racial landscape of America and Europe, harkens back to the spirit of Malamud, Bellow, and Roth, and offers a refreshing contrast to what I'd describe as the insular quality of much recent Jewish writing.Mansbach's novel just might herald a fruitful new start, rather than portend the end, of the Jews in America." —Jbooks.com (read the full review here)

"The End of the Jews is blessed with a jogging, propulsive, continuous, forward motion. A truly energetic writer." —New York Post

"Mansbach searchingly examines the fraught relations between Jews and gentiles, blacks and whites, men and women, artists and those who nurture them. Painfully honest, compassionately cognizant of human frailty and complexity, alive to the magic of creativity yet aware of its consequences—very exciting fiction indeed." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A delight." —Publishers Weekly

"A sweeping tale composed of interwoven story lines that defy simple synopsis. What makes Mansbach’s novel unique is his depiction of how the complexities of life in the margins are played out in intrafamily relationships: what family members don’t tell each other, how they treat each other, and the silences and secrets that tear at the fabric of that basic unit. The End of the Jews offers a technically-refined approach [and] complex characters. By deftly revealing the psychology of cultural anxiety that binds generations, it succeeds. A very strong novel." —The Bloomsbury Review

"A sweeping generational tale about America, literature, ethnic identity, and a grandfather-grandson graffiti bombing run. [Mansbach] has the passion, the whip-smart intelligence, and the cadence and flow of a spoken-word hip-hop chronicler — which he is." —SF Weekly

"Adam Mansbach is a true talent and his new book is a masterwork of the Jewish arts of humor and sadness." —Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng

"Lyrical, brave, and moving . . . further proof of Adam Mansbach's formidable talent. At every turn, The End of the Jews is startling in its honesty. This novel is not to be missed." —Daniel Alarcón, author of Lost City Radio

"As Czeslaw Milosz famously said, 'When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished,' but Adam Mansbach takes this notion to new extremes in this smart, moving novel. This is fascinating, scorching drama." —Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land

"Mansbach has made something new of the multigenerational Jewish epic; this is far more tough-minded reading than we are used to on the subject. I don't love Jews any less for it, and neither does Mansbach, but I do know us better for what we are. This is a heartfelt, truthful book." —Keith Gessen, author of All the Sad Young Literary Men

"Few writers tackle a story with as much sheer vigor as Adam Mansbach. Replete with sorrow, humor, and furious energy, The End of the Jews is an unflinching novel of hard truth." —Peter Orner, author of Esther Stories

"A writer bold enough for these times, Adam Mansbach delivers a stunning examination of the evolution of American history, identity, Blacks and Jews, together with an incredible ability to fuse them all. An amazing portrait of love, betrayal, despair and the surviving power of the human spirit. I enjoyed it immensely." —Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation

"With no wasted words, The End of the Jews delves into race relations, social issues, responsibility to family and loved ones, conflicting loyalties, and betrayal. As a bonus, the reader is treated to a musical romp through most of the 20th century. The writing is powerful, descriptive, and contemporary. The dialogue is pitch perfect. Strong, well drawn, compassionate characters propel the narrative. Adam Mansbach probes cultural perceptions of what it means to be Jewish, or African-American; how the two identities can intersect. This multigenerational saga is rich, informative, and very entertaining from the first page until the last." —Jewish Book World

"Mansbach’s excellent new novel explores the dynamics of the Jewish relationship with black culture. The End of the Jews provides a complex, thoughtful, and compelling look at the artistic side of a relationship that has long been conceived only in political terms." —New Voices

Praise for Angry Black White Boy

"Angry Black White Boy gives new meaning to the term black humor. A singularly jittery blend of urban wit and southern Gothic, it's a book of buoyant rhythm and dark material. A novel of ideas above all... The book covers expansive intellectual and geographical terrain, [and] its drive never falters. Mansbach gets us there by creating a tense world whose figures often are at cross-purposes. Angry Black White Boy, like the truest expressions of hip-hop, graffiti and jazz, is daring and original. It stings like its hero, Macon Detornay, a self-described scorpion of race." —The Boston Globe

"A remarkably successful remix of the traditional race novel. Mansbach monkey-wrenches the formula of the angry black man in the white man's world and incisively cuts to the heart of the issue of race in America today. [Angry Black White Boy] shows us where we as a culture have come from, the distance we have traveled, and how long the road ahead remains. It is first-rate satire grounded in the absurd notion that a simple 'I'm sorry' can start to make things better. The novel will make you laugh, cringe and read until the last page without knowing how it's going to end. It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate conclusion for the story of Macon Detornay, as the uncertainty of fiction dovetails with the uncertainty of reality." —The San Francisco Chronicle

"Mansbach is an able satirist of race issues... captures vividly the inhuman sadism inherent to racial violence." —The New York Times Book Review

"Angry Black White Boy unflinchingly delves into American racism. While Mansbach unfurls urban vernacular like a silver-tongued hip hopper grasping a microphone, he chronicles Detornay's media-injected ascension and horrific collapse with cinematic vision." —Washington Post Express

"A slash and burn novel of race relations in post hip hop America. Sure to be dissected, reviled, misunderstood and praised for years to come, which is exactly why you should read it now."—XLR8R Magazine

"Painfully hilarious... brilliant... leaves readers searching for answers amid the absurdity... not for the fainthearted." --Time Out New York

"Adam Mansbach has written what will possibly become the quintessential 21st century race novel, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that the protagonist is white. A searing and dark tale of appropriated identity and racial stirring, Angry Black White Boy maintains a hilariously dark tone throughout." —Undercover (UK)

"A bold and layered examination of race in Amerca."—Minneapolis City Pages

"Is a fresh take on race in America possible? In his breakout novel, Mansbach definitively answers: Hell yeah! A lyrical and ass-kicking romp." —Portland Mercury

"A hilarious, terrifying and brutally honest novel about race and American identity. Satire at its finest, it should be required reading for anyone interested in the microscopically thin line between love and hate that defines race relations in America." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"An engaging, cleverly worded tale that finally gives us something more than the rhetoric-filled fluff being touted as 'hip hop literature.' An addictively good read comes in the form of Angry Black White Boy —cop it." —Mugshot Magazine

"Boldly confronts the issue of race while brilliantly blending hip hop, jazz, poetry, street culture, New York,, mid-America and even baseball to create a highly intense, moving, and original masterpiece." —Straight No Chaser (UK)

"Subversive genius... a ferocious punt to the backside that leaves a Timberland print on your consciousness." —East Bay Express

"Satirical and often funny... Forget white guilt —Angry Black White Boy is full-on white implosion."—Time Out Chicago

"A novel of high-minded absurdity... a smart, merciless story of cultural appropriation, racial justice and individual authenticity." —Creative Loafing Atlanta

"Genuinely pissed-off, and convincingly beautiful —essentially, what hip hop is supposed to be. Mansbach channels the genre, inter-cutting or commenting on other texts in much the same way a DJ would create a really complex, dialectical relationship between a particular rapper and a particular beat by splicing them together. These inter-textual riffs are the writer's equivalent of sampling breakbeats from old 45s." —Kitchen Sink

"'Hard-hitting. Not since Spike Lee's Bamboozled has America seen as trenchant and unapologetic a satire as Angry Black White Boy." —Alternet

"This dude knows shit, and if you don't... this read will send you well on your way. It's over three hundred pages of comedy (dark), insight (powerful) and depth (deep)."—New City Chicago

"Adam Mansbach's novel is at once humorous and tragic as it delves into the complex issues of racial politics. Angry Black White Boy should certainly provide a unique and wlecome addition to anyone's bookshelves and as such is certainly worth picking up; however, putting it down may be somewhat more problematic."—Grind Mode (UK)

"A collar-grabbing satire." —New York Metro

"An amazing take on racial issues in the U.S.. Beautifully told, the story grips you from the start... A race novel reworked for the hip hop generation. It's frank, to the point and honest, and on top of that it's one hell of a funny read, one you'll find yourself going back to over and over." —UK Hip Hop (UK)

"Seamlessly accurate, biting satire... By the time Macon arrives at the cataclysmic riot that is the climax of the book, we know why he's there, we can see what's coming —and, as with the best horror films, we stick around to watch as the catastrophy hits." —San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Satire of the highest caliber, serious issues grounded in circumstances that at times are laugh-out-loud funny. With the same touch of humanism employed by writers such as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, Mansbach does for the issue of race in contemporary American what those two did for it as the Civil Rights Movement came to the forefront of American discourse." —Redsnap Magazine

"Angry Black White Boy joins Chapelle's Show in filling the void [by] addressing race issues in a direct and satirical fashion. Mansbach cleverly delivers... with dynamic language and vivid, funny characters." —The Beat

"Angry Black White Boy makes a powerful argument for the continuing relevance of the novel in advancing... vital questions of contemporary political significance. Mansbach's poetic prose wraps itself around a compelling and engaging story, replete with jarring humour, action, and the kinds of complex human interactions that might only be illustratable in the world of fiction. Mansbach has created what will be an enduring and nuanced portrait of a certain type of whiteness, raising more questions than answers, and quietly reaffirming the central role to be played by fiction in sensitively, attentively and intelligently processing the world in which we lived and live, before and after the political debris of fallen towers." —Seven Oaks Magazine (Canada)

"An engrossing story... never falters in its boffo momentum. Its hilarity is studied and each fantastic flight gets a counter-punch." —Bookslut.com

"What's most fascinating about this novel is its realism in dealing with prejudices from both white and black people. As a black person, I had to often remind myself that the author was white, because of how well he communicated the opinions and concerns of some of the black characters. Mansbach writes with a wonderful style; he is able to infuse intelligence and slang onto every page. Definitely a good read for anyone who is in the mood for something different, thought-provoking and controversial." —Okayplayer.com

"At turns hilarious and profoundly troubling, the novel serves as a meditation on hip hop culture and its enormous influence on the psyches of white suburban youth." —Dose Magazine (Canada)

"Mansbach shows great ability. He mixes a sophisticated writing voice with true b-boyisms [and] makes subtle but poignant observations about racism, hip hop arts and the mass media. He shows how little people know about each other and how little some care... and mixes the styles of Richard Wright and Kurt Vonnegut to great success." —Elemental Magazine

"A heady, significance-laden rumination on race relations in America." —Wired Magazine (UK)

"The best novel of the past five years." —Marc Bamuthi Joseph, National Poetry Slam Champion

"There are no safe places left: with dark humor and vivid insight, Adam Mansbach has challenged everything we thought we knew about race in this country. Startling, subversive, and raucous, Angry Black White Boy is a novel about how we became who we are, and why that's not good enough." —Daniel Alarcón, author of War By Candlelight

"Angry Black White Boy is an insanely smart novel that pulls no punches. Adam Mansbach understands that race is a cultural construct and that authenticity is,sadly, a commodity. His vision is wild, comic and dark. This is a really funny book." —Percival Everett, PEN Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning author of Erasure

"Angry Black White Boy is bananas! Actually, it's a banana split with razor blades in it. Adam Mansbach is the white Richard Wright, and Angry Black White Boy is our generation's Native Son." —William 'Upski' Wimsatt, author of No More Prisons

"Angry Black White Boy is all about collisions —between hip-hop and its past, blackness and whiteness, "keeping it real" and the absurdity of reality. With this brutal, hilarious, and tragic novel, Adam Mansbach proves once again he is one of the most ambitious, insightful, and daring writers of our generation." —Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of The Hip-Hop Generation

"Not only a literary gem that displays an amazing breadth of literacy in several musical, cultural and literary traditions, but also an insightful and complex lens on the never-ending conundrum surrounding white youth's fascination with black culture and black people. Mansbach explores these desires, conflicts and contradictions with extraordinary passion, pain, self-critical awareness, complexity and depth. I came away shaken and stimulated, unable to set aside the range of racial issues raised and the uneasy, unresolved answers offered." —Tricia Rose, author of Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America