Wherever You Go

Yona Stern has traveled from New York to Israel to make amends with her estranged sister, a stoic ideologue and mother of five who has dedicated herself to the radical West Bank settlement cause. Yona's personal life resembles nothing of her sister's, but it isn't politics that drove the two apart. Now a respected Jerusalem Talmud teacher, Mark Greenglass was once a drug dealer saved by an eleventh-hour turn to Orthodox Judaism. But for reasons he can't understand, he's lost his once fervent religious passion. Is he through with God? Is God through with him? Enter Aaron Blinder, a year-abroad dropout with a history of failure whose famous father endlessly--some say obsessively--mines the Holocaust for his best-selling, melodramatic novels. Desperate for approval, Aaron finds a home on the violent fringe of Israeli society, with unforeseen and devastating consequences. In a sweeping, beautifully written story, Joan Leegant, winner of the PEN New England Book Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, weaves together three lives caught in the grip of a volatile and demanding faith. Emotionally wrenching and unmistakably timely, shines a light on one of the most disturbing elements in Israeli society: Jewish extremist groups and their threat to the modern, democratic state. This is a stunningly prescient novel.

Compelling.Finally, a novel about Israel by an American Jew that’s written well and without sentimentality... There have been many important novels in English about Israel; Leegant’s is certainly among them.Pitch-perfect renderings of individuals torn between earthly and heavenly Jerusalems...Wherever You Gois a lively, full novel by an elegant, ironic writer who handles the topics of terror and messianic violence as agilely as she does love and redemption.Leegant is a talented writer with a sharp eye for detail, a good ear for dialogue (and interior monologue), and a knack for drawing characters that engage our interest and empathy'. She succeeds at building suspense with a variety of literary strategies and executes a clever twist in the plot"s denouement to prolong the tension until almost the very end.[R]emarkable and affecting novel, at once lucid and lyrical..... Not since the warring Zuckerman brothers in Philip Roth's The Counterlifehave the exigencies of settler politics and secular desires been so cogently addressed in a work of fiction. Who says the novel has lost its relevance? This one should be required reading. -- Jonathan Wilson, author of

Compelling. --Ari Weinzweig, founding partner, Zingerman's Community of Businesses, and author of

Finally, a novel about Israel by an American Jew that’s written well and without sentimentality... There have been many important novels in English about Israel; Leegant’s is certainly among them. --The Forward

Pitch-perfect renderings of individuals torn between earthly and heavenly Jerusalems...Wherever You Go is a lively, full novel by an elegant, ironic writer who handles the topics of terror and messianic violence as agilely as she does love and redemption. --Miami Herald

Leegant is a talented writer with a sharp eye for detail, a good ear for dialogue (and interior monologue), and a knack for drawing characters that engage our interest and empathy…. She succeeds at building suspense with a variety of literary strategies and executes a clever twist in the plot’s denouement to prolong the tension until almost the very end. --Moment Magazine

[R]emarkable and affecting novel, at once lucid and lyrical..... Not since the warring Zuckerman brothers in Philip Roth's The Counterlife have the exigencies of settler politics and secular desires been so cogently addressed in a work of fiction. Who says the novel has lost its relevance? This one should be required reading. --Jonathan Wilson, author of A Palestine Affair

Compelling. --Booklist

This powerful, emotionally wrenching story opens in Jerusalem one steamy September when three Americans, unknown to each other, seek personal salvation in a foreign land. Yona Stern longs to make amends with her estranged sister who lives in a radical Jewish settlement. Mark Greenglass, a Talmud teacher, has inexplicably lost his once fierce devotion to Orthodox Judaism and now wonders if he"s done with God. Enter Aaron Blinder, an unstable college dropout whose famous father endlessly'"some say obsessively'"mines the Holocaust for his best-selling, melodramatic novels. In a sweeping, beautifully written story of the lengths to which we will go in search of spiritual fulfillment, Joan Leegant weaves together the stories of three lives in the grip of a volatile, demanding faith, and ultimately bound together by a tragic act of violence. Haunting and wise, Wherever You Gois a gripping and prescient debut novel.

Now a respected Jerusalem Talmud teacher, Mark Greenglass was once a drug dealer saved by an eleventh-hour turn to Orthodox Judaism. But for reasons he can t understand, he s lost his once fervent religious passion. Is he through with God? Is God through with him Enter Aaron Blinder, a year-abroad dropout with a history of failure whose famous father endlessly some say obsessively mines the Holocaust for his best-selling, melodramatic novels. Desperate for approval, Aaron finds a home on the violent fringe of Israeli society, with unforeseen and devastating consequences In a sweeping, beautifully written story, Joan Leegant, winner of the PEN New England Book Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, weaves together three lives caught in the grip of a volatile and demanding faith. Emotionally wrenching and unmistakably timely, Wherever You Go shines a light on one of the most disturbing elements in Israeli society: Jewish extremist groups and their threat to the modern, democratic state. This is a stunningly prescient novel. "

A debut novel by a writer who has been praised for bringing "matter and spirit together . . . with unsuspected, unquantifiable meaning."--

Praise for "Chekhov famously advised that it is not the job of the novelist to solve problems, only to present them correctly. Joan Leegant's remarkable and affecting novel, at once lucid and lyrical, deftly illuminates the darker confusions of contemporary Jewish life in Israel with a warm heart and a cold eye. Not since the warring Zuckerman brothers in Philip Roth's have the exigencies of settler politics and secular desires been so cogently addressed in a work of fiction. Who says the novel has lost its relevance? This one should be required reading." --Jonathan Wilson, author of Praise for Joan Leegant "Prose of fine-boned clarity and compassion. . . . Leegant has brought matter and spirit together and left them vibrating with unsuspected, unquantifiable meaning."--Louis Bayard, "Provocative and memorable stories, suffused with Jewish lore and wisdom. . . . Leegant's characters are unforgettable."--

Joan Leegant, author of An Hour in Paradise and Wherever You Go, won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for the best book of Jewish-American fiction and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts.