If there's a throughline in all my books, it occurs to me I've always been writing about the dangers of extremism, the times when we get sucked too deeply into ideologies that lead to dangerous action. So this most recent novel felt like an ideal time to take that head-on: to see what would happen within a sect of Kabbalists, led by a self-proclaimed prophet, when things went bad. With that in mind... here's a bunch of books focused around prophecy!
The story of Ruth and her sister trying to find a mother figure after their mother takes her own life in rural Idaho might not sound like the realm of prophecy. But in the ways that Robinson's luminous sentences spill open by book's end into a recounting of everything from Noah and the flood to Cain and Abel, this is a book of what Ruth thinks of as "brilliant memory."
A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.
The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsizedâŠ
You have to call him Ishmael, and you have to come to love Ahab, and you have to remember that both of those names appear in the first five books of the Bible. In the mid-19th century, just the other side of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God way, it is not just a prophetic work, but the work of a prophet.
I reread the novel last summer and was reminded above all of how funny it is. Like, 19th-century American prophecy, but with a tone that at times almost feels like The Simpsons. So cartoonish!
Melville's tale of the whaling industry, and one captain's obsession with revenge against the Great White Whale that took his leg. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colourful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography of Herman Melville and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom or at home to further engage the reader in the work at hand.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa storiesâall reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argueâŠ
This novel may be my favorite book of the 1970s and a woefully underappreciated deep satire not just of its moment, but of ours as well. I think about the mere fact of museums being renamed "centers of art detention" once a day or so, and I haven't reread the book in a decade.
New in 2023, the 50th anniversary edition of the classic, freewheeling novel by one of the most iconic satirists of our timeânow with a new introduction by the author.
âPart vision, part satire, part farce⊠A wholly original, unholy cross between the craft of fiction and witchcraft.â âThe New York Times
It is the 1920s in New York City and an epidemic known as Jes Grew is sweeping the nationâa dancing plague, irresistible, joyful, and undeniably Black. Naturally, the powers-that-be are having none of it. A repressive conspiracy is operating in the shadows, and it is dead set on squelchingâŠ
The only other novel I know, along with my book, directly about the 17th-century false prophet Sabbetai Tzvi. Singer's is a kind of historical novel of that moment, imagining the effect of that prophet on a small European town during his days of false prophecy. It's a good one.
As messianic zeal sweeps through medieval Poland, the Jews of Goray divide between those who, like the Rabbi, insist that no one can "force the end" and those who follow the messianic pretender Sabbatai Zevi. But as hysteria and depravity reign free, it becomes clear that it is not the Messiah who has come to Goray.
Praise:
"Beautifully written by one of the masters of Yiddish prose, and beautifully translated, ''Satan in Goray'' is folk material transmuted into literature." â The New York Times Review of Books
"A gripping parable of reason versus revelation, hysteria in the face of apocalypse"âŠ
Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New Yorkâs wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, itâs time to dig into the details and seeâŠ
I know, I know, it's supposed to be pretentious and self-negating to talk about the great DFW now. But that doesn't change the fact that in his imagining an America where everyone is so mesmerized by a piece of entertainment that they've lost their minds... well, dude imagined the iPhone. Also, the Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment.
It's gigantic and meandering and a slog at times, but no single novel predicted our hellscape better than this one. Sorry. That's prophecy.
'A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything' New York Times
'Wallace is a superb comedian of culture . . . his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight' James Wood, Guardian
'He induces the kind of laughter which, when read in bed with a sleeping partner, wakes said sleeping partner up . . . He's damn good' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
'One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory' Sunday Times
Somewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at theâŠ
The Dönme sectâa group of Jewish-Islamic adherents with ancient rootsâlives in an isolated community on rural land outside of smalltown Mt. Izmir, Ohio. Self-sustaining, deeply religious, and heavily armed, they have followed their self-proclaimed prophet, Natan of Flatbush, from Brooklyn to this new land. But the brutal murder of Natanâs teenage son throws their tight community into turmoil.
When Zeke Leger, a thirty-year-old writer at a national magazine, arrives from New York for the funeral of a friend, he becomes intrigued by the case, and begins to report on the murder. His college girlfriend Johanna Franklin prosecuted the case, and believes it is closed. Before he knows it, Zeke becomes entangled in the conflict between the Dönme, suspicious local citizens, Johanna, and the lawâwith dangerous implications for his body and his soul.
In the tumultuous world of ancient Israel, Ahinoamâa fierce and unconventional Kenite womanâflees her family farm with her dagger-wielding father to join the ragtag band of misfits led by the shepherd-turned-warrior David ben Jesse.
As King Saul's treasonous accusations echo through the land, Ahinoam's conviction that David's anointing makes himâŠ
In an underground coal mine in Northern Germany, over forty scribes who are fluent in different languages have been spared the camps to answer letters to the deadâletters that people were forced to answer before being gassed, assuring relatives that conditions in the camps were good.Â
