Howl

by Howard Jacobson

A tragicomic portrait of one man's unravelling in an absurd, twisted world, Howl is the propulsive new novel from Booker-Prize winner Howard Jacobson.

In the aftermath of October 7, Ferdinand Draxler walks the streets of London in despair. Everything has changed – the sights, the sound, the spirit. He too is not who he was. Is he at the crossroads of history or is it 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 sees him as complicit in genocide, Draxler fixates on bad news. He shouts at the television. He carries his own tin of paint to cover up graffiti. The staffroom at the primary school of which he is headmaster has become a battlefield of inflamed opinion he does nothing to quiet.

His wife Charmian is a beacon of calm but even she isn't sure she can save Ferdie from himself. 'Don't worry about me,' he tells her. 'I don't have what it takes to go mad.'

'He just gets better and better' Giles Coren

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2026

About the author

Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester, England, and educated at Cambridge. His many novels include The Mighty Walzer (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), Who’s Sorry Now? and Kalooki Nights (both longlisted for the Man Booker Prize), and, most recently, The Act of Love. Jacobson is also a respected critic and broadcaster, and writes a weekly column for the Independent. He lives in London.

Profile of Howard Jacobson in The New York Times.

“The book's appeal to Jewish readers is obvious, but like all great Jewish art — the paintings of Marc Chagall, the books of Saul Bellow, the films of Woody Allen — it is Jacobson's use of the Jewish experience to explain the greater human one that sets it apart. Who among us is so certain of our identity? Who hasn't been asked, "What's your background" and hesitated, even for a split second, to answer their inquisitor? Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question forces us to ask that of ourselves, and that's why it's a must read, no matter what your background.”—-David Sax, NPR.

Reviews

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to be honest and say, there's too much in here that I don't understand. That doesn't make it a poor book - far from it - but if I don't understand it, I can't really say whether it's good or bad, worthy or worthless, well-written or badly-written. I understand this is a book about madness, and that the not-understandable is an inherent part of madness. Maybe even the sine qua non. I understand Howard Jacobson when I hear him being interviewed. And agree with most of what he says. But as I don't understand a lot of what's written in this book, I can't say if I agree or disagree with it. Maybe it doesn't matter, or maybe it matters a great deal. Probably both. Reading back this review, I don't much understand that either. So, confusion is my overriding feeling. And in the final analysis, that is probably what Jacobsen is trying to achieve. Anyway, back to my Duke of Wellington book. That I can understand.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. There’s something deeply healing about recognising a sense of twinship in someone who captures that same sense of isolation and disconnection from humanity during that time. The crowd were empathy barren, full of people swept up in a kind of collective frenzy, quick to judge, slow to empathise.

The atmosphere was stark and polarised, dominated by black-and-white thinking, where nuance disappeared and everything is filtered through a lens of good vs evil. It’s an unsettling reminder of a bloodthirsty crowd caught in its own rigid, unhearing mindset.

It captures how painful it was, as a Jewish person, to witness others celebrating October 7th, people gathering in the streets, tearing down posters, and framing it as “resistance,” while at the same time denying or dismissing the reality of what had happened.

[Sim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mix of humour and tragedy with a father-child rupture reminiscent of the story of Absalom and a fall from position and comfort reminiscent of the story of Job.

Sometimes you’re chuckling, such as when Draxler picks up his daughter’s copy of Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’, suggests it must be for a course entitled Peevishness and Revolution, ‘flicks the pages’ and says ‘there, I’ve re-read it’. Ouch! (The author is not a fan of Noam Chomsky either, and that was pre the Epstein revelations!)

But for much of the book you’re re-living the awfulness of the post-7 October 2023 world. Why did the anti-Israel ‘peace’ marches start immediately after the Nova music festival massacre, before Israel’s remorseless, horrifying response? And why did so many in the West express elation and call for more Jews to die?

Perhaps one of the issues with this book is that it feels a bit like it needs a sequel because we are still living in the post ‘October 7’ world, with much yet to play out.

[Marjorie Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howl

A revelation! Howard Jacobson has explained where we are in this messed up world and how we got here with his marvellous Jewish humour.

I have loved reading his books for years.

Howl contains both the truth and the hideous truth of our times.

I’m off to a high mountain top to think of Howl for quite a long while.

[Helen Rudolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Ferdinand Drexler, a type of Everyman Jew struggling to deal with the insanity of the post 7 October world in the diaspora (more precisely Streatham in South London. The first third or so of this book is great comic and dramatic writing. It spirals off a bit in the middle of the novel but gets back on track til the very end which I have to say I struggled to follow. Jacobson is a superb comic writer, he captures the spirit of the present time with insight and self deprecating humour but the switch between a kind of magic realism and real life didn’t quite work for me.

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A darkly comic depiction of the madness that so many Jews in the Diaspora have encountered/experienced since October 7, 2023. Published in the author's native Britain in early March, it is as yet unpublished in the United States.

[Lee Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 - The madness of massacre and hate both historical and present infect the protagonist (as it does all of us). Whilst interesting and deliberately provoking notions are put forward, the book felt repetitive and left me unengaged at points, though as ever, Jacobson is a fine stylist.

[Neville Filar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning read.

One man's take on what it is to be Jewish at this time. Where truth has given way to lies. Where falsity rules. And where to be Jewish is as difficult as it's ever been in this country

This is a tour de force. Bravo HJ!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an interested reader of Howard Jacobson's blog, although not so captivated by his novels. Bravely I grabbed this, his latest offering, as soon as the library could provide a copy.
The October 2023 Hamas attack has happened, and the Israelis have retaliated.
Ferdinand Draxler, a Jewish Londoner, is bewildered by the anti-semitic response and huge sympathy for Palestinians that he finds in his home country. The virulence of the response is overstated and quite unbelievable. At this point it is necessary to be reminded that this is satire; the overstatement is deliberate. Gradually Ferdie works his way through his own unhingedness. His visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is particularly delightful.
The book is dryly amusing. The chapter headings add entertainment.
About two thirds of the way through I started to feel it dragging a bit, but I saw it through to the fantastical end.
Now in March 2026 the State of Israel and the US are violently attacking on other fronts, and we don't hear much about Gaza ...

[Vincent Coole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I am glad that exists as it attempts to put a lens on how the October 7th massacre led to Jewish people being labelled as complicit in all the events that followed. A brave novel by Howard Jacobson, although his writing, so witty and an intelligently argued, never comes across as preachy, and the Catch 22-esque characters all contribute the absurdity of the situations protagonist Ferdinand Draxler finds himself in. Almost Orwellian aswell, Draxler finds himself in a dystopian environment in which even his own daughter makes a stand against Israel (but really her father). Draxler is the archetypal Jewish male Jacobson tends to use, and often seems wimpish against the females in his life, his wife Charmian and his holocaust surviving mother. They often feel like characters in a play for Ferdinand to bounce ideas of and not especially well developed in themselves. His brother Isaac and deputy head Max seem to go through more character development, even if again they border on the absurd. Not hugely plot driven and it’s structured mainly by episodes of dialogue, but which is often so sharp, this is sometimes all you really need.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

hOWL was precisely what you would expect from Howard Jacobson - a v well written, witty stream of consciousness with a v Jewish theme, light on plot, he didn't even bother to use different names - we have a Zoe in this book, like we had a Chloe & Zoe in Kalooki Nights, and , just like in Kalooki Nights, he has a non Jewish wife, which serves as a useful sounding board. We have a character who was a very religious Jew but is now secular, and a kippah wearing pro Gazan Jewish convert. The book is somewhat crazy, just like the main character, but, having said all that,I found it a v engaging read, unlike Kalooki Nights which was DNF for me. In true Jacobson style, even the title has a deep meaning, the lower case signifying the unravelling of existential despair! Having said all this, it was an entertaining read if you choose to side step all the deep religious and political issues!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, an accurate, yet harrowing, depiction of the libels, gaslighting and hatred since more than 1,200 people were killed by Hamas in Israel on 7th October 2023.

It captures the feelings of isolation, alienation, exclusion, confusion and bafflement many of the UK's Jews are feeling at present.

The language used in the book had me reaching for a dictionary on many occasions, so I have certainly improved my vocabulary!

[Jane Fudger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not usually read books like this[satirical novels] but it was recommended to me. The plot follows a Jewish headmaster of a English junior school and his reactions following the Hamas attack on Israel.
I admit that the book is a well written and provocative novel but it was also self indulgent. Darkly comic in places but unfortunately the plot portrayal was not for me.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was funny and had me laughing in what I think was the spirit intended. Some parts became a bit repetitive and obsessive, but then that might be the point. Some bits stretched credibility, but then that might be the point. I found the ending strange, but then that might be the point. Worth reading, and I think it was worth writing.

[Richard Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that I wanted to read to understand more about being a Jew in Britain today and because I always enjoy Jacobson's writing. I was not disappointed. My blog:
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...

[Thomas Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is as good as anything HJ has ever written. Funny and poignant, life in London as a Jew post October 7th.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, tragic, funny, self deprecating, slightly surreal story of a Jewish Londoner’s descent into craziness after October 7th 2023. A soul searching insightful novel.

[Timothy Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of a distraughtJewish Londoner after the 7/10/2023 Hamas attack. Great story , intermittently very funny, and intelligent dialogue.

[Adam Hummel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put down.

[Elie · Rating 4 out of 5]

howl felt like a synagogue

[Andrew Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the aftermath of October 7, the novel portrayed the battlefield of antisemitism that had arisen in Ferdinand Draxler's London. However, in Jacobson's tragicomic portrait, the heightened tension is exaggerated by Draxler's personal fixations and madness. It is such a creative handling of his existential "unravelling" as a Jew.