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Howl
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Howl

By: Howard Jacobson
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In the aftermath of a massacre from which he doubts the world will ever recover, Ferdinand Draxler finds himself at the crossroads of history. Unless it’s just a bend in the cul-de-sac of his own gloomy nature.

The son of a Holocaust survivor who accuses him of cowardice and the father of a daughter who accuses him of genocide, Draxler longs to be a hero for his people or the comic scourge of their enemies, but does he have the mettle to be either? He isn’t even sure he has what it takes to go mad.

He wades through protests and searches London for menacing graffiti, whilst dodging the warring staff in the primary school where he is headmaster and the pleas of his non-Jewish wife to seek 'mental health' support. But can't she see that the world is crumbling around them, and he is at the centre?

A devastating psychological portrait filled with wit, dark humour and tragedy, Howl is the propulsive new novel from Booker-Prize winner Howard Jacobson.

© Howard Jacobson 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Jewish Literary Fiction Psychological World Literature

Critic Reviews

A howling comic masterpiece (Patrick Marber)
Bold and brilliant, Howl is Howard Jacobson at his finest. A challenging novel that demands to be read and talked about (Anthony Seldon)
Howard Jacobson’s Howl is fearless, furious and unbearably tender - a darkly comic reckoning with history, identity and what it means to stay sane when the world is coming apart. It's a rare novel that feels absolutely of this moment and is also destined to stand the test of time. (Noreena Hertz)
Historians can tell you why antisemitism happens, but it takes a great novelist to tease out all the ways it makes Jews feel, about the world and about themselves. Howard Jacobson has a unique eye for the combination of pain and absurdity that this ancient hatred brings to bear on Jewish sensibilities, and an irresistible, shocking wit in its telling. (Dave Rich)
Howard Jacobson’s appetite for fiction is insatiable. He just gets better and better (Giles Coren)
Incredibly profound, beautifully written and - amazingly and essentially - funny (Tanya Gold)
Howl is funny and upsetting and profound. Howard Jacobson is the master chronicler of the Jewish experience at a time when it is needed most. (Matthew Syed)
In his trademark dazzling prose, Jacobson has written what may be the first post-October 7 novel: by turns angry, rueful, provocative and wise, Howl also somehow - and against all the odds - manages to be consistently, defiantly funny. It is a book that boils with fury and fizzes with life (Jonathan Freedland)
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