Brian Josepher

Brian Josepher is the founder of a new literary form, the faux history. As Josepher describes, the faux history differs from earlier approaches. The “faux historian begins like the authentic historian, with an investigation. The historian studies the facts of the case…. The facts of the case don’t form a coherent, researchable story. The reasons for this are many: the facts are few: the facts are dubious; the facts are disinformative. For historians rooted to the historical method, this conclusion closes the door on the case. Without facts, what is history? Without facts, what is a historian? Without facts, what separates the historian from the fiction writer? The faux history, at this point in the proceedings, picks up steam. Imagination replaces reality. Invention substitutes for truth. Fabrication kicks in. But unlike earlier forms of historical fabrication - historical fiction or alternative fiction - the faux history maintains the shape of a thoroughly researched history.”
Josepher’s latest work, Satan’s Synagogue (2019), chronicles 2,000 years of history. The story follows a circuitous route: from Brooklyn to Vienna to Jerusalem to Nazareth, from Elie Wiesel to Auschwitz to The Holocaust, from Mark to Jesus to Josephus, from Josephus to Franz Joseph to Josepher. Along the way, ancient documents resurface, and an assassination attempt explodes, and a bicycle ride - known as the Tour de Josephus - explores the Galilee and old Phoenicia. As Josephus challenged the authenticity of the Book of Mark, in a lost manuscript recently unearthed, Josepher challenges the sacred texts of Wiesel. This “ambitious work cleverly manages to encompass biblical historicity, the Holocaust, and the conspiracies that plague both of these subjects, and it walks a fine line between satire and sincere engagement.”
An earlier work, The Complete and ExtraOrdinary History of the October Surprise (2009), explored a complex question of high treason. Did the Reagan Republicans negotiate a deal with Khomeini’s Iran to delay the release of the American hostages held in Tehran until after the presidential election of 1980, thereby assuring themselves of victory over President Carter’s reelection campaign?
Josepher seemed to embark upon the faux history form with his first novel, and second book. What the Psychic Saw (2005) chronicled events of the 20th century, bookended by the assassination of President McKinley and the bombing of the World Trade Center. In between, key characters included Alger Hiss, Rodney King, a Lenny Bruce imitator, a famous Holocaust survivor, and Robert Oppenheimer.
Josepher is also the author of a collection of short stories, I know Who Shot M and Other Love Stories (2002), and the co-author of an historical work on the American reaction to the Holocaust in Roosevelt and the Holocaust: A Rooseveltian Examines the Policies and Remembers the Times (2006).

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