The Chosen

“The Chosen is a compelling, absorbing book. It offers deep, sympathetic insight into the variety and profundity of Jewish tradition and heritage. It’s interesting as social commentary and as, simply, story. It’s a joy to read for its splendid, singing prose style as much as for its message.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune“The Chosen is one of the best novels I have read in the last decade. The author asks and provides unique and original answers to the nature of parental love, infuses his novel with a quiet and compelling wisdom, and brings alive a period and neighborhood with rare style.” – Los Angeles Times“A classic story of faith and friendship. Fifty years after publication it is still inspiring.” – Alice Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers“A coming of age classic.” – The Boston Globe“Anyone who finds The Chosen is finding a jewel… It will stay on our bookshelves and be read again.” – The Wall Street Journal“It is a simple, almost meager story… yet the warmth and pathos of the dealings between fathers and sons and the understated odyssey from boyhood to manhood give the book a range that makes it worth anybody’s reading.” – The Christian Science Monitor“It makes you want to buttonhole strangers in the street to be sure they know it’s around…. It revives my sometimes fading belief in humanity. Works of this caliber should be occasion for singing in the streets and shouting from the rooftops.” – Chicago Tribune“Perceptive, touching, exquisite, and unusual… Chaim Potok is a gifted writer.” – The Boston Herald“We rejoice, and even weep a little… Long afterward it remains in the mind and delights.” – The New York Times Book Review

Chaim Potok was born in New York City in 1929. He is the author of nine novels, including The Chosen (1967), The Promise (1969), and My Name is Asher Lev (1972), as well as five plays, three children’s books, and three works of nonfiction. An ordained rabbi, he served as an army chaplain in Korea and received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. He died in 2002.