Synopses & Reviews
A wonderful new voice combining the offbeat sensibility of Nathan Englander and the compassionate eye of Allegra Goodman. In settings from Jerusalem to Queens, from Hollywood's outskirts to Sarasota, Florida, the characters in this mesmerizing debut collection are drawn to the seductions of religion, soldiering on in search of divine and human connection. A former drug dealer turned yeshiva student faces his past with a dying AIDS patient. A disaffected American in the ancient city of Safed ventures into Kabbalist mysticism and gets more than he bargained for. A rabbi whose morning minyan is visited by a pair of Siamese twins considers the possibility that his guests are not mere mortals. An aging Jerusalemite chronicles his country's changes during the biblical year of rest. By turns poignant and comic, unflinching and compassionatewith a dose of fabulist daringAn Hour in Paradise explores the dangers and unforeseen rewards of our most fundamental longings.
Review
"Leegant demonstrates talent and flexibility....This is a wide and varied talent that may need the longer form to find its directions and boundaries....One definitely to follow." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Leegant has brought matter and spirit together and left them vibrating with unsuspected, unquantifiable meaning." Louis Bayard, New York Times Book Review
Table of Contents
The tenth -- Lucky in love -- How to comfort the sick and dying -- The lament of the rabbi's daughters -- The seventh year -- Mezivosky -- Seekers in the Holy Land -- Henny's wedding -- Accounting -- The diviners of desire : a modern fable.