A major literary debut, an epic tale of love, failure, and unexpected faith set in New York, Amsterdam, and Las Vegas.
The modern-day Jonah at the center of Joshua Max Feldman's brilliantly conceived retelling of the Book of Jonah is a young Manhattan lawyer named Jonah Jacobstein. He's a lucky man: healthy and handsome, with two beautiful women ready to spend the rest of their lives with him and an enormously successful career that gets more promising by the minute. He's celebrating a deal that will surely make him partner when a bizarre, unexpected biblical vision at a party changes everything. Hard as he tries to forget what he saw, this disturbing sign is only the first of many Jonah will witness, and before long his life is unrecognizable. Though this perhaps divine intervention will be responsible for more than one irreversible loss in Jonah's life, it will also cross his path with that of Judith Bulbrook, an intense, breathtakingly intelligent woman who's no stranger to loss herself. As this funny and bold novel moves to Amsterdam and then Las Vegas, Feldman examines the way we live now while asking an age-old question: How do you know if you're chosen?
"The storytelling, infused with energy throughout, gathers momentum and culminates in an enigmatic, unexpected ending. . . The risk-taking and sheer weirdness of The Book of Jonah is worth applauding."
The New York Times Book Review
"A beguiling first novel. . . Feldman gives ample proof that he can write about well-dressed New Yorkers with the same prickly wit that Claire Messud offered in The Emperor's Children . . . His satire lacks that astringent bitterness that can make some witty novels seem heartless. And his willingness to pose the big questions to the whirlwind makes for unusually thoughtful reading."
The Washington Post
"Brave and necessary . . . one of the few novels I've read recently that is a genuine page-turner."
