Goyhood, Reuven Fenton
Goyhood, Reuven Fenton
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Goyhood
A Novel

Author: Reuven Fenton

Narrator: Mike Lenz

Unabridged: 9 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/30/2024


Synopsis

Reuven Fenton's novel Goyhood is a brilliant debut about a devoutly Orthodox Jewish man who discovers in middle age that he's not, in fact, Jewish, and embarks on a remarkable road trip to come to grips with his fate.

When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he'd left his wasted youth behind. Now he's a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world.

But his mother's untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne'er-do-well twin brother David aren't, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer's only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim?

So begins the Belkins' Rumspringa through America's Deep South with Mom's ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.

About Reuven Fenton

Reuven Fenton has been covering murder and scandal for the New York Post since 2007. He has earned national recognition for his exclusive reporting on national stories such as the resignations of political powerhouses Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner, Hurricane Sandy and the devastation it brought on New York and New Jersey, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the Boston Marathon bombing. Reuven was inspired to write Stolen Years after covering an unforgettable court hearing in 2013 in which a Brooklyn judge freed David Ranta, a man who'd been wrongfully convicted twenty-two years earlier of murdering a rabbi. The sensational story sparked an investigation into misconduct by both the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and the lead detective in the case. Reuven is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and lives in New York City with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @reuvenfen.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rosh ~catching up slowly~ on May 23, 2024

In a Nutshell:A contemporary coming-of-age novel, though the main characters are middle-aged. A good debut work, but somewhat uneven in execution. This book didn’t gel with me for various reasons, but it does have its merits and ought to work better for the right reader, preferably a Jewish one. ~~......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on June 26, 2024

In the mid 1990s, when 12-year-old Marty Belkin was living in Moab, Georgia, no one would have predicted he'd grow up to be a Talmud scholar. While Marty's mother Ida Mae entertained men in the house, Marty and his fraternal twin brother David would ride around on their battered Schwinn bikes, eat c......more

Goodreads review by Louise on October 09, 2024

(3.75 stars) Goyhood immediately attracted me for its title alone. And I’m glad I got a chance to read it. There were lots of laughs and some very poignant moments along the way. The set-up: twins Marty and David Belkin are 12 years old, living in Moab, Georgia, somewhere near Atlanta, when Chabad set......more

Goodreads review by Susan McAulay on May 21, 2024

This book was an unexpected pleasure. It was not that I did not expect to like it but I am not sure that I expected to quite enjoy it as much as I did. This is about two twin brothers who are pursuing their lives very differently: one is living his life as an Orthodox Jew and the other leads a very......more

Goodreads review by Kendall on May 07, 2024

4.5/5 absolutely fell in love with this story and each character. it made me laugh and cry and had a taylor swift reference. literally blew me away and exceeded all expectations such a heart warming story i wish i had more 🫶🏻......more