When Arlene Goldbard is not being a cultural activist or a consultant, she paints. When she is not painting she writes. She writes essays and novels. Her latest novel The Intercessor has just come out.

Owen Kelly talks to Arlene about how this specific burst of writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve.

 

DECEMBER 5 | SERIES 2025

STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 81

 

PARTICIPANTS

Arlene Goldbard | Owen Kelly

COMMENTARY

This month Owen Kelly discusses Arlene Goldbard’s new book, a novel titled The Intercessor, and asks why she chose to write this unusual kind of novel at this particular time.

The novel offers a linked series of short stories, each foregrounding one character from a group whose stories eventually interlock. All of the characters have political, social or spiritual issues which come to seem less like categories than like different coloured lenses through which we can approach the world.

The novel explores the Jewish Renewal movement, among other themes, without wanting its audience limited to Jews or even less to Jews with an interest in the Jewish Renewal movement.

Arlene explains how this specific writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. 

REFERENCES

Arlene on Wikipedia 

Arlene’s website 

Arlene Goldbard: Clarity (2004) 

Arlene Goldbard: The Wave (2013)

Arlene Goldbard: The Intercessor (2025)

Jewish Renewal, described on Wikipedia 

Adin Steinsaltz: The Thirteen Petalled Rose