In National Book Awards finalist, Jewish trans boy and golem team up to save the world

Jewish author Kyle Lukoff’s latest novel, “A World Worth Saving,” was named one of the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards in the Young People’s Literature category.

The novel, which is aimed for middle-grade readers, features a young Jewish transgender boy who teams up with a golem, a creature from Jewish folklore, to save the world from demons that feed off of pain and suffering, including the one haunting his conversion therapy program.

It is Lukoff’s second National Book Awards finalist nod. In 2021, he was also a finalist in the Young People’s Literature category for “Too Bright to See,” a novel about a transgender boy living in a haunted house.

“I’m shortlisted for the National Book Award!!!! (again). I could not be more thrilled, and am excited to read the other finalists,” wrote Lukoff in a post on Instagram. (He also celebrated the award with a feast of Ashkenazi food.)

Lukoff, who is transgender, told blogger Kyle Ranson-Walsh that the concept behind “A World Worth Saving” first came to him from a librarian friend who messaged him: “You should write a book about a golem that protects trans kids.”

While researching Jewish mythology for the novel, Lukoff, who was born in Skokie, Illinois, and graduated from Barnard College, came across “Spirit Possession in the Jewish Traditions: Case Studies from the Middle Ages to Today” by Matt Goldish.

“I realized that I could stay within Jewish mythology for this story. Everything I needed I could find from that lore,” Lukoff told Ranson-Walsh. “That allowed the book itself to become more deeply Jewish, because I didn’t have to go outside that lane to find ways to make it work.”

Lukoff is also the author of “Call Me Max,” a picture book about a young trans boy that has been banned at several school districts around the United States, as well as “My Little Golden Book About Pride.”