Joan Leegant
Now out from W. W. Norton
More praise for
WHEREVER YOU GO
“Chekhov famously advised that it is not the job of the novelist to solve problems, only to present them correctly. Joan Leegant's remarkable and affecting novel, at once lucid and lyrical, deftly illuminates the darker confusions of contemporary Jewish life in Israel with a warm heart and a cold eye. Not since the warring Zuckerman brothers in Philip Roth's "The CounterLife" have the exigencies of settler politics and secular desires been so cogently addressed in a work of fiction. Who says the novel has lost its relevance? This one should be required reading.”
Jonathan Wilson, author of
“A Palestine Affair”
What drives otherwise rational people to embrace radical religious and political violence, and at what cost? These are the questions that run through the pages of Joan Leegant’s stunning novel, WHEREVER YOU GO, the story of three Americans all walking the steamy streets of Jerusalem one September.
Yona Stern has traveled from New York to Israel to make amends with her estranged sister, a stoic ideologue and mother of five who has dedicated herself to the radical West Bank settlement cause. Yona’s personal life resembles nothing of her sister’s, but it isn’t politics that drove the two apart.
Now a respected Jerusalem Talmud teacher, Mark Greenglass was once a drug dealer saved by an eleventh-hour turn to Orthodox Judaism. But for reasons he can’t understand, he’s lost his once fervent religious passion. Is he through with God? Is God through with him?
Enter Aaron Blinder, a year-abroad drop-out with a history of failure whose famous father endlessly - some say obsessively - mines the Holocaust for his best-selling, melodramatic novels. Desperate for approval, Aaron finds a home on the violent fringe of Israeli society, with unforeseen and devastating consequences.
In a sweeping, beautifully written story, Joan Leegant weaves together three lives caught in the grip of a volatile and demanding faith. Emotionally wrenching and unmistakably timely, WHEREVER YOU GO shines a light on one of the most disturbing elements in Israeli society: Jewish extremist groups and their threat to the modern democratic state. This is a stunningly prescient book.
How far are we willing to go in the name of a cause?
WHEREVER YOU GO
A Novel
“...strong, sensory writing...” Publishers Weekly
To watch and hear Joan Leegant talk about her work click here.
“There have been many important novels in English about Israel; Leegant’s is certainly among them." The Forward
“Pitch-perfect...” The Miami Herald
From the winner of the PEN/New England Book Award, the Wallant Award, and Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, a gripping novel of contemporary Israel.
From the publisher:
“...a finely wrought story that raises issues while it keeps a reader turning the pages.” Chicago Jewish Star
“A talented writer...She succeeds in building suspense... to prolong the tension almost to the very end.” Moment Magazine
“Outstanding...a skillful weaving of history-making in the present.” examiner.com
“A sensitively observed work.” The Jerusalem Post
“Compelling.” Booklist