About the Book
" Tova Reich's verbal blade is amazingly, ingeniously, startlingly, all-consumingly, all-encompassingly, deservedly, and brilliantly savage."-Cynthia Ozick
In this extraordinary collection of short fiction, Tova Reich dives deep into the world of Orthodox Jewry-a world that her stories, like the shows "Unorthodox" and "Shtisel," embrace with respect and affection while also poking at the faultlines in its unshakeable traditions.
" Tova Reich's verbal blade is amazingly, ingeniously, startlingly, all-consumingly, all-encompassingly, deservedly, and brilliantly savage."-Cynthia Ozick
In this extraordinary collection of short fiction, Tova Reich dives deep into the world of Orthodox Jewry-a world that her stories, like the shows "Unorthodox" and "Shtisel," embrace with respect and affection while also poking at the faultlines in its unshakeable traditions.
The eight stories collected in this volume are all populated by seekers-of holiness, illumination, liberation, meaning, love. Their journeys unfold in the U.S., Israel, Poland, China, often in the very heart of the Jewish world, and are rendered with an insider's authority. The narrative voice bringing all this to life has been described as fearlessly satiric and subversive, with a moral but not moralizing edge, equally alive to the sacred and the profane, comically absurd to the point of tragedy.
From the opening story, "TheLostGirl" (winner of a National Magazine Award in Fiction) to "Dead Zone" in the closing pages of this collection, we are confronted with souls unable to rest, unable to find release, searching for their place in this life, and beyond. Between these two stories, we encounter a true believer seeking personal redemption in China ("Forbidden City"), and an aged woman longing at the end of her life to find a way back to her mother ("The Plot"). Three of the stories, "The Page Turner," "The Third Generation," and "Dedicated to the Dead," are animated by the long-term fallout from the Holocaust-generational trauma, abuse of memory, competitive victimization, and more. In the midst of all this is the story "The House of Love and Prayer," which, in its way, encompasses the entire spectrum.
The novelist Howard Norman has said, "Few contemporary writers are truly original.Tova Reich is one of them." Read this book and discover her satiric genius.
About the Author :
TOVA REICH's most recent novel, Mother India (2018), was longlisted for the South Asia Literature Prize and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Other novels include Mara, Master of the Return, The Jewish War, My Holocaust, and One Hundred Philistine Foreskins. Her stories have appeared in the Atlantic, Harper's, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Fiction, The Edward Lewis Wallant Book Award, and other prizes. She lives on the fringe of Washington, DC.
Review :
"Reich’s stories have a density to them: long paragraphs weighted with rich description, bricks placed carefully to build constructions capable of supporting the weight of history. But they do not make for labored reading. Rather, they build worlds worth returning to." — Gwen E. Kirby, The New York Times Book Review
"Fearless, hysterically funny, and with the sharpest eye for truth and falsity, Tova Reich is a brilliant writer." — Jonathan Safran Foer
"Moral, mordant, irreparably torn, Tova Reich is the conscience of the diaspora—of all diasporas—as she shows in her outstanding first collection of short fiction, The House of Love and Prayer." — Joshua Cohen, author of Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, The Netanyahus
"Devastating satire. . . . startling premises and razor-sharp character sketches. Hers is no commonplace brilliance, however, and this book is full of black comedy at its most unsettling."
— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
"In her first short story collection, Reich portrays religious Jews in many settings. With TV shows such as Unorthodox and Shtisel, popular culture has increasingly turned its eye on Haredi Jews. In this same vein, Reich’s new book humanizes this often misunderstood and stereotyped demographic, including stories that showcase religious Jews in many different situations and settings, from Brooklyn to Israel to China. Reich shows us, for instance, a young girl overcome by shame who disappears in a forest on a school field trip in “The Lost Girl” . . . people dealing with the shadow of the Holocaust in several stories; and even “Dead Zone,” a speculative piece set in the mid-21st century in which Israel is no longer recognized as a state. These stories vivify the real and relatable people in the communities they portray even as they lay bare some of their flaws; rather than passing judgment, positive or negative, they show that Haredi people are just people, no less worthy of empathy and no more worthy of prurient curiosity than anyone else. Reich’s prose brims with authenticity, as she utilizes Hebrew and Yiddish words as their speakers would, without unnecessary translation. Moreover, her prose is fluid and engrossing; the reading experience is easy but rewarding and always a joy.
"An impressive collection that captures the complexity and diversity of the Haredi Jewish world." — Kirkus Reviews
"Reich’s five novels . . . are volcanic satires of Jewish traditions and paradoxes, holy fools and wily wheelers and dealers. Her fervid, whirlwind yet pinpoint imagination and insights are potently distilled in her lacerating, often macabre, acidly funny short stories, collected here for the first time. . . . In these ingenious, disturbing, radically incisive, stinging, and hilarious tales, Reich wrestles with antisemitism, misogyny, deceit, profiteering, faith, and guilt. — Donna Seaman, Booklist
“Reich’s trademark subjects and recognizable style fill the pages of The House of Love and Prayer and Other Stories, the publication of which marks the first time her short fiction has been gathered into book form. … This much seems certain: If Reich’s novels have provoked strong reactions in the past, this collection will fuel vivid conversations, too. Try it in your book club—if you dare.” — Moment magazine
