New Releases by Chaim Potok

A fascinating history of the Jews, told by a master novelist, here is Chaim Potok''s fascinating, moving four thousand-year history. Recreating great historical events, exporing Jewish life in its infinite variety and in many eras and places, here is a unique work by a singular Jewish voice.

Gershon Loran, a quiet rabinical student, is troubled by the dark reality around him. He sees hope in the study of Kabbalah, the Jewish book of mysticism and visions, truth and light. But to Gershon''s friend, Arthur, light means something else, the Atom bomb, his father helped create. Both men seek different a refuge in a foreign place, hoping for the same thing....

"Ha választanod kellene az esztétikai vakság és a morális vakság között, te melyiket választanád?" Mélyen felkavaró, zseniális regény egy kivételes tehetséggel megáldott, érzékeny fiúról, aki a lélek két birodalma - a ladovi (lubavicsi) haszid közösség Isten-vezérelte világa, és a művészet ugyancsak fanatikus, magányos és felőrlő világa - közt vergődik. És mindkettő tántoríthatatlan hűséget követel tőle. Chaim Potok az amerikai- és a világirodalom egyik legnagyobb alakja. Rabbi, irodalmár, filozófus. Regényei tudás, szépség és szeretet különös ötvözetei, amelyek számos országban vezették hónapokig a bestsellerlistákat. "A nevem Asher Lev. Az az Asher Lev, akiről az újságokban és a képeslapokban olvasnak, akiről annyi szó esik a vacsora- és koktélpartikon, a Brooklyni Feszületről elhíresült, legendás Lev. Vallásos zsidó vagyok. Igen. Hívő zsidók természetesen nem festenek feszületeket. Ami azt illeti, hívő zsidók egyáltalán nem festenek - úgy, ahogyan én. Szerfölött kemény szavakat írnak és mondanak rólam, vádakat koholnak ellenem: áruló vagyok, hitehagyott, öngyűlölő, a családom, a barátaim, a népem szégyene; másfelől, a keresztények szent és sérthetetlen eszméinek kigúnyolója, a nem zsidók által kétezer éve mélységesen tisztelt létformák istenkáromló kufárja. Nos, semmi efféle nem vagyok. Mindazonáltal teljes őszinteséggel megvallom, hogy vádlóim egészében véve nem tévednek: bizonyos szempontból csakugyan mindegyik vagyok..." "Potok elismerten a családi élet és az amerikai zsidó érzésvilág felülmúlhatatlanul megindító krónikása" - Times Book Review "Életigenlő... lelket tápláló... mélyen szántó könyv emberségről, vallásról, művészetről." - The Wall Street Journal

While Chaim Potok is most famous for his novels, particularly his first book The Chosen (1967)—which was listed on The New York Times bestseller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies—he also wrote plays, which are collected and published here for the first time. Rena Potok edited the collection and wrote the introduction. This book features all five of Potok’s plays, production notes on each of the plays, prefaces by the directors, and the transcript of a post-performance discussion on Out of the Depths featuring Chaim Potok and Prof. David Roskies, which appears for the first time in print, in this volume. Includes: Out of the Depths (Performed in Philadelphia in 1990. The last version was a 1990 video of the staged workshop performance. The play was reconstructed for this collection by Rena Potok and David Bassuk, the play’s director and co-creator, based on the video and on the final rehearsal script.) Sins of the Father: The Carnival and The Gallery (Performed in Philadelphia in 1990. Adapted from scenes in Chaim Potok’s novels The Promise and My Name is Asher Lev.) The Play of Lights (Performed in Philadelphia in 1992. Adapted from Chaim Potok’s novel The Book of Lights.) The Chosen (Premiered in 1999 and performed widely since then. Adapted from the novel of the same name into a play by Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner. This volume contains the most recent authorized version of the play.)

A coming-of-age classic about two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, this “profound and universal” (The Wall Street Journal) story of faith, family, tradition, and assimilation remains deeply pertinent today. “Works of this caliber should be occasion for singing in the streets and shouting from the rooftops.” —Chicago Tribune It’s the spring of 1944 and fifteen-year-olds Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders have lived five blocks apart all their lives. But they’ve never met, not until the day an accident at a softball game sparks an unlikely friendship. Soon these two boys—one expected to become a Hasidic rebbe, the other at ease with secular America—are drawn into one another’s worlds despite a father’s strong opposition. Set against the backdrop of World War II and the creation of the state of Israel, The Chosen is a poignant novel about transformation and tradition, growing up and growing wise, and finding yourself—even if it might mean disappointing those you love.

Para Davita Chandal, crecer en Nueva York en las décadas de 1930 y 1940 es a la vez una experiencia de alegría indescriptible y de inconmensurable tristeza. Sus amorosos padres, ambos fervientes militantes comunistas, la contagian con el brillo feroz de la esperanza de un mundo nuevo y mejor. Pero las privaciones de la guerra y la Depresión se cobran su implacable peaje. Inesperadamente, Davita encuentra en la fe judía –que hace largo tiempo su madre ha abandonado- un consuelo a su inquisitivo dolor interno y una prueba para su incipiente espíritu de independencia. Para ella, las escurridizas posibilidades que la vida ofrece de felicidad, logros y decencia se convierten en algo real y reverberante como la música de la pequeña arpa que cuelga en su puerta y les da la bienvenida a los visitantes con sus tonos dulces y suaves. Potok ha abierto un nuevo claro en el bosque de la literatura estadounidense. A medida que Davita cobra vida, también lo hace el libro. Los campos de exterminio de Hitler, las tropas de Franco, la bomba atómica no pueden derrotar a los personajes de Potok, porque hay un lazo dulce y amoroso que une sus vidas, un lazo simbolizado por los suaves tonos de la pequeña arpa colocada en la puerta de cada uno de los departamentos en que Davita ha vivido. Una gloria delicada infunde el mundo que esta gente ve cuando abren sus puertas y ventanas. El libro más valiente de Potok. The New York Times Book Review

A Brooklyn, negli anni della seconda guerra mondiale, due ragazzi, Reuven Malter e Danny Saunders, s’incontrano sul campo di baseball nel corso di una partita che presto assume i connotati di una guerra santa. Entrambi ebrei, Danny e Reuven appartengono a due diverse comunità religiose, che da sempre si guardano con sospetto e diffidenza. Reuven, figlio di uno studioso del Talmud, è quello che Danny, chassid intransigente, definisce sprezzantemente un «apicoros», cioè un eretico, che ha l’ardire di profanare la lingua sacra studiando le materie scolastiche in ebraico anziché in yiddish. La ferita che Danny infligge a Reuven durante la partita è anche una ferita simbolica, di sfregio e di sfida, e insieme la cerniera narrativa che consente a Potok di mettere a confronto due modi di concepire la fedeltà alla tradizione e di vivere l’esistenza. La bellezza della scrittura di Potok riluce soprattutto nell’ascolto che riesce a prestare a quegli immensi silenzi familiari, gonfi di tensione, che legano biologicamente i padri ai figli; antichi linguaggi muti che «dicono più col silenzio che con le parole di una vita intera», perché «le parole sono crudeli, nascondono il cuore, il cuore che parla per tramite del silenzio».

Segunda y última entrega de la nunca terminada trilogía sobre Asher Lev. El niño protagonista de Mi nombre es Asher Lev se ha convertido ya en un afamado pintor que vive con su mujer y sus hijos en el sur de Francia. Tras el repentino fallecimiento de su tío Yitzchok es reclamado de urgencia a volver a su Brooklyn natal, lo que supondrá el reencuentro con su familia y con la comunida jasidí de Ladover, de la que había sido explusado. Una vez allí, diversos acontecimientos provocarán un giro en la relación entre Asher y la comunidad ladovita, lo que hará que tenga lugar El don de Asher Lev. Potok da continuidad en esta obra al agudo retrato del artista y su mundo que realizó en la primera entrega, a la vez que nos introduce en el mundo y las problemáticas de las comunidades jasidíes que se se asentaron en América en la primera mitad del siglo XX.

Asher Lev es un niño judío observante que pertenece a una familia profundamente religiosa. Asher Lev también tiene un don: es un genio que no puede dejar de pintar el mundo que ve y siente. Pero en este don está la semilla del conflicto con lo que más quiere: su familia y su comunidad. En esta novela conmovedora y visionaria, Chaim Potok realiza un agudo retrato del artista y de su mundo. Todo un clásico moderno.

“Extraordinary . . . No one but Chaim Potok could have written this strangely sweet, compelling, and deeply felt novel.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer In his powerful My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok gave the world an unforgettable character and a timeless story that The New York Times Book Review hailed as “little short of a work of genius.” The Chicago Sun-Times declared it “a story that had to be told.” Now, Chaim Potok’s beloved character returns to learn, to teach, to dream, in The Gift of Asher Lev. Twenty years have passed. Asher Lev is a world-renowned artist living with his young family in France. Still, he is unsure of his artistic direction. Success has not brought ease to his heart. Then Asher’s beloved uncle dies suddenly, and Asher and his family rush back to Brooklyn—and into a world that Asher thought he had left behind forever. It is a journey of confrontation and discovery as Asher purges his past in search of new inspiration for his art and begins to understand the true meaning of sacrifice and the painful joy in sharing the most precious gift of all. Praise for The Gift of Asher Lev “A masterwork.”—Newsday “Rivals anything Chaim Potok has ever produced. It is a book written with passion about passion. You’re not likely to read anything better this year.”—The Detroit News “Fascinating.”—The Washington Post Book World “Very moving.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this modern classic from the National Book Award–nominated author of The Chosen, a young religious artist is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy. “A novel of finely articulated tragic power .... Little short of a work of genius.”—The New York Times Book Review Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. He grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. He is torn between two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other devoted only to art and his imagination, and in time, his artistic gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous, visionary portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant.

From the celebrated author of The Chosen and My Name Is Asher Lev, a trilogy of related novellas about a woman whose life touches three very different men—stories that encompass some of the profoundest themes of the twentieth century. Ilana Davita Dinn is the listener to whom three men relate their lives. As a young girl, she offers English lessons to a teenage survivor of the camps. In “The Ark Builder,” he shares with her the story of his friendship with a proud old builder of synagogue arks, and what happened when the German army invaded their Polish town. As a graduate student, she finds herself escorting a guest lecturer from the Soviet Union, and in “The War Doctor,” her sympathy moves him to put his painful past to paper recounting his experiences as a Soviet NKVD agent who was saved by an idealistic doctor during the Russian civil war, only to encounter him again during the terrifying period of the Kremlin doctors’ plot. And, finally, we meet her in “The Trope Teacher,” in which a distinguished professor of military history, trying to write his memoirs, is distracted by his wife’s illness and by the arrival next door of a new neighbor, the famous writer I. D. (Ilana Davita) Chandal. Poignant and profound, Chaim Potok’s newest fiction is a major addition to his remarkable—and remarkably loved—body of work.

¿Qué ocurre cuando la verdad parece ir en contra de todo aquello en lo que has creído hasta el momento? ¿Es verdadera una religión que puede llegar a hacer enfermar gravemente a un niño por su causa? ¿Es malvada esa religión o son las personas las que la hacen así? Y, sin embargo, ¿no son esas mismas personas las únicas capaces de bailar y reír de corazón? ¿No son ellas las que pueden llegar a curar al mismo niño enfermo? Para Reuven Malter ha llegado el momento de poner a prueba sus creencias y afectos: con sus profesores por su método de estudio de las Escrituras; con su amigo Daniel, en la lucha por salvar a un niño prisionero de su propio genio. Al final, sólo el amor a la propia tradición, la pertenencia al propio pueblo, la pasión por la verdad le pueden hacer triunfar, llevarle a comprender quién es él verdaderamente.

One of America''s most popular Jewish writers, Chaim Potok (b. 1929) is the author of such novels as The Chosen (1967), The Promise (1969), The Book of Lights (1981), and Davita''s Harp (1985). Each of his novels explores the tension between tradition and modernity, and the clash between Jewish culture and contemporary Western civilization, which he calls "core-to-core culture confrontation." Although primarily known as a novelist, Potok is an ordained Conservative rabbi and a world-class Judaic scholar who has also published children''s books, theological discourses, biographies, and histories. Conversations with Chaim Potok presents interviews ranging from 1976 to 1999. Potok discusses the broad range of his writing and the deep influence of non-Jewish novels-in particular, Evelyn Waugh''s Brideshead Revisited and James Joyce''s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-on his work. Interviews bear witness to Potok''s many other influences-Orthodox Jewish doctrine, Freudian psychoanalytical theory, Picasso''s Guernica, and Jewish kabbalah mysticism. Though labeled an American Jewish writer, Potok argues that Flannery O''Connor should then be called an American Catholic writer and John Updike an American Protestant writer. "In his mind," editor Daniel Walden writes, "just as Faulkner was a writer focused on a particular place, Oxford, Mississippi, . . . so Potok''s territory was a small section of New York City." Potok often explores conflict in his writings and in his interviews. Strict Jewish teachings deem fiction an artifice and therefore unnecessary, yet since the age of sixteen Potok has been driven to write novels. At the root of all of these conversations is Potok''s intense interest in the turmoil between Jewish culture, religion, and tradition and what he calls "Western secular humanism." As he discusses his work, he continually includes broader issues, such as the state of Jewish literature and art, pointing out with pride and enthusiasm his belief that Jewish culture, in the twentieth century, has finally begun to have a significant role in producing and shaping the world''s art and literature. Whether discussing the finer details of Talmudic textual analysis or his period of chaplaincy during the Korean War, Potok is articulate and philosophical, bringing deep consideration into what may seem small subjects. Although his novels and histories take place primarily in the recent past, the Chaim Potok that emerges from this collection is a writer deeply rooted in the tensions of the present. One of America''s most popular Jewish writers, Chaim Potok (b. 1929) is the author of such novels as The Chosen (1967), The Promise (1969), The Book of Lights (1981), and Davita''s Harp (1985). Each of his novels explores the tension between tradition and modernity, and the clash between Jewish culture and contemporary Western civilization, which he calls "core-to-core culture confrontation." Although primarily known as a novelist, Potok is an ordained Conservative rabbi and a world-class Judaic scholar who has also published children''s books, theological discourses, biographies, and histories. Conversations with Chaim Potok presents interviews ranging from 1976 to 1999. Potok discusses the broad range of his writing and the deep influence of non-Jewish novels-in particular, Evelyn Waugh''s Brideshead Revisited and James Joyce''s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-on his work. Interviews bear witness to Potok''s many other influences-Orthodox Jewish doctrine, Freudian psychoanalytical theory, Picasso''s Guernica, and Jewish kabbalah mysticism. Though labeled an American Jewish writer, Potok argues that Flannery O''Connor should then be called an American Catholic writer and John Updike an American Protestant writer. "In his mind," editor Daniel Walden writes, "just as Faulkner was a writer focused on a particular place, Oxford, Mississippi, . . . so Potok''s territory was a small section of New York City." Potok often explores conflict in his writings and in his interviews. Strict Jewish teachings deem fiction an artifice and therefore unnecessary, yet since the age of sixteen Potok has been driven to write novels. At the root of all of these conversations is Potok''s intense interest in the turmoil between Jewish culture, religion, and tradition and what he calls "Western secular humanism." As he discusses his work, he continually includes broader issues, such as the state of Jewish literature and art, pointing out with pride and enthusiasm his belief that Jewish culture, in the twentieth century, has finally begun to have a significant role in producing and shaping the world''s art and literature. Whether discussing the finer details of Talmudic textual analysis or his period of chaplaincy during the Korean War, Potok is articulate and philosophical, bringing deep consideration into what may seem small subjects. Although his novels and histories take place primarily in the recent past, the Chaim Potok that emerges from this collection is a writer deeply rooted in the tensions of the present.

Drie verhalen waarin joodse mannen terugkijken op een bewogen leven.

Two Jewish friends, Renven and Danny explore the true meaning of courage, growth, and family.

From the celebrated author of The Chosen comes a masterly collection of stories about the lives of young adults. Zebra and Other Stories charts moments of grief, crisis, and change for its teenage protagonists. Through these events -- some sudden, some lingering in memory -- come growth and understanding, as the layers of the adult world are peeled back. Rich in drama, told with wisdom and a sharp understanding of the clarity with which young people see the world in front of them, here are six memorable stories from a beloved storyteller.