Why am I passionate about this?
If there's a throughline in all my books, it occurs to me I've always been writing about the dangers of extremism, the times when we get sucked too deeply into ideologies that lead to dangerous action. So this most recent novel felt like an ideal time to take that head-on: to see what would happen within a sect of Kabbalists, led by a self-proclaimed prophet, when things went bad. With that in mind... here's a bunch of books focused around prophecy!
Daniel's book list on prophetic American stories
Why did Daniel love this book?
The only other novel I know, along with my book, directly about the 17th-century false prophet Sabbetai Tzvi. Singer's is a kind of historical novel of that moment, imagining the effect of that prophet on a small European town during his days of false prophecy. It's a good one.
1 author picked Satan in Goray as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
As messianic zeal sweeps through medieval Poland, the Jews of Goray divide between those who, like the Rabbi, insist that no one can "force the end" and those who follow the messianic pretender Sabbatai Zevi. But as hysteria and depravity reign free, it becomes clear that it is not the Messiah who has come to Goray.
Praise:
"Beautifully written by one of the masters of Yiddish prose, and beautifully translated, ''Satan in Goray'' is folk material transmuted into literature." — The New York Times Review of Books
"A gripping parable of reason versus revelation, hysteria in the face of apocalypse"…