A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn
A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn
3 Rating(s)
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A Guide for the Perplexed

Author: Dara Horn

Narrator: Carrington MacDuffie

Unabridged: 10 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: AudioGO

Published: 09/09/2013

Synopsis

[MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case.]

[Read by Carrington MacDuffie]

A thrilling new novel exploring how memory shapes the soul, by ''an astonishing storyteller'' --(Financial Times)

Software prodigy Josie Ashkenazi has invented a program that records everything its users do. When an Egyptian library invites her to visit as a consultant, her jealous sister Judith persuades her to go. But in Egypt's postrevolutionary chaos, Josie is kidnapped -- leaving Judith free to usurp her sister's life, including her husband and daughter, while Josie's talent for preserving memories becomes her only hope of escape.

A century earlier, Solomon Schechter, a Cambridge professor, hunts for a medieval archive hidden in a Cairo synagogue. What he finds will reveal the power and danger of the world Josie's work brings into being -- a world where nothing is ever forgotten.

Interweaving stories from Genesis, medieval philosophy, and the digital frontier, A Guide for the Perplexed is a spellbinding tale sure to bring a vast new readership to the acclaimed work of Dara Horn.

About Dara Horn

Dara Horn earned her Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 2006. In 2007, she was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the Best Young American Novelists. Her first novel, In the Image, received a National Jewish Book Award, an Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The World to Come, received the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and was selected as an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review and as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the San Francisco Chronicle. She has taught courses in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Harvard and at Sarah Lawrence College, and she has lectured at universities and cultural institutions throughout the United States and Canada. Dara lives with her husband, daughter, and son in New Jersey.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jill on September 11, 2013

Like other novels by the talented Dara Horn, this book has layers upon layers that challenge the reader intellectually without pulling you away from the story. This book is, on one level, a retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph, who was sold into bondage in Egypt by his jealous brothers. If you h......more

Goodreads review by Susan on November 11, 2013

I was left speechless by this book. It is a story within a story within a story, all in a larger context of the questions: "what is memory?" and "who am I, really?" It also explores the superficial and deeper meaning of relationships and connections, providing much food for thought (and Torah drashe......more

Goodreads review by Dan on September 25, 2013

I have been a big fan of Dara Horn and loved "The World to Come." I have also done a lot of reading in Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed (I am a rabbi and a philosophy major) So I was looking forward to reading this book a great deal. But I found it deeply disappointing. I enjoyed the sections on S......more

Goodreads review by Oriana on June 17, 2013

Here is a short list that should tell you everything I think about this book: 1. I got it at BEA. 2. I carried it around during like the wettest two weeks ever, even in a derecho, and it is pretty well destroyed. 3. I finished it at the park, lying in the last sun rays of the day. 4. I will be gifting......more

Goodreads review by robin on November 09, 2024

Maimonides In A Contemporary Novel Some historical background may be useful in reading and reviewing Dara Horn's novel, "A Guide for the Perplexed." The great medieval Jewish philosopher and physician Maimonides (1138 -- 1204) wrote a famous and difficult work of philosophy, "The Guide for the Perple......more

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