Book cover of Job: The Story of a Simple Man

Book description

An Orthodox Jew encounters his biggest test of faith after moving from Tsarist Russia to New York City in this “pure, perfect” retelling of the Book of Job (Stefan Zweig)

Job is the tale of Mendel Singer, a pious, destitute Eastern-European Jew and children’s Torah teacher whose faith is…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Job as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

First, because I love the way Roth writes—with simplicity, occasionally with wit, but always with more than one thing going on in a sentence.

Second, because it’s a probably well-informed portrait of the lives led by Jews in late 19C Russia, which sort of interests me because that’s where my grandparents started out. Third, because it’s a story of migration, and with that comes change and betrayal and loyalty and all kinds of American drama.

In sum, a most unusual book from a truly marvelous Austrian writer

If you love Job...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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