The Romance Reader, Pearl Abraham
The Romance Reader, Pearl Abraham
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Romance Reader

Author: Pearl Abraham

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Unabridged: 9 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 11/04/2011

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

Filled with laughter and tears, author Pearl Abraham's moving novel takes you behind the mysterious, closed doors of a Chassidic Jewish community in New York state. The Romance Reader is her absorbing tale of a headstrong, teenaged girl attempting to live in two worlds: one traditional, one modern. Since Rachel is the rabbi's oldest child, everyone expects her to set a proper example for other young believers. But at night, after everyone is in bed, she hungrily reads books-forbidden books about romance and contemporary women. She wonders if the life she reads about in those pages actually exists. Do beautiful, daring women really travel alone? Can they choose their own gallant, broad-shouldered husbands? Soon Rachel's search for answers clashes with the restrictive world she knows only too well. Having grown up in a Chassidic family enables Pearl Abraham to write with poignancy and authority about this intriguing, ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Her sensitive story earned a chorus of praise from reviewers, and Library Journal named it a Best Book. With Suzanne Toren's compelling narration, Rachel will become your friend, and you won't want to say good-by.

Reviews

Goodreads review by MaryannC Victorian Dreamer on June 28, 2022

I love this book! I have read it about 3 times now and I will go back again. This is a wonderful story of a young Hasidic girl who is strongly encouraged to marry and follow the customs of her faith but she longs to experience life on the outside of what her family and community expects of her.......more

Goodreads review by Muh-ching on July 17, 2010

If you want the woman's view of life in an Ultra-Orthodox community, kind of like the view from the sisters of the rebbe, you should read this book. It's familiar in so many ways to the stifling Confucian limits on Chinese women, and its description of a girl trying to get away from her loving famil......more

Goodreads review by melydia on December 28, 2008

Rachel is the teenaged daughter of a rabbi in a cloistered Hasidic community. She's quite the rebel: she gets a library card, reads romance novels, wears sheer stockings, goes out without a kerchief, and wants to wear a swimsuit while working as a lifeguard (as opposed to an ankle-length dress). Thi......more

Goodreads review by Kalen on March 30, 2012

I liked this book a lot--more than I ended up liking Unorthodox. Curiously, they're very similar, though Romance Reader was written nearly 15 years ago. This one is better written, and ultimately, more believable--though it is fiction and Unorthodox is non-fiction. There's a part of me that can help......more

Goodreads review by mia mathilda on May 25, 2021

Ich hatte die ganze Zeit das Gefühl, dass der Roman schlecht übersetzt ist... Meine Ausgabe ist auch relativ alt, but still:/ Die Geschichte und die Charaktere hatten Potential, welches aber nicht ausgeschöpft wurde. Viel rumgeplänkel:/ Trotzdem wurde gegen Ende der innere Kampf von Rachel immer deu......more