kaddish.com

The Pulitzer finalist delivers his best work yet—a brilliant, streamlined comic novel, reminiscent of early Philip Roth and of his own most masterful stories, about a son's failure to say Kaddish for his father Larry is an atheist in a family of orthodox Memphis Jews.

When his father dies, it is his responsibility as the surviving son to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. To the horror and dismay of his mother and sisters, Larry refuses—thus imperiling the fate of his father's soul. To appease them, and in penance for failing to mourn his father correctly, he hatches an ingenious if cynical plan, hiring a stranger through a website called Kaddish.com to recite the daily prayer and shepherd his father's soul safely to rest.

This is Nathan Englander's freshest and funniest work to date—a satire that touches, lightly and with unforgettable humor, on the conflict between religious and secular worlds, and the hypocrisies that run through both. A novel about atonement; about spiritual redemption; and about the soul-sickening temptations of the internet, which, like God, is everywhere.

“A rare blessing . . . a smart and witty novel . . . infused with delight.” —The Washington Post

“Tender, wry and entertaining. . . . Englander’s trademark humor is on display, but most striking and moving about kaddish.com is the unabashed sweetness of a son’s longing for a father.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Satirical, inventive, and brimming with gallows humor, this novel’s whip-smart look at the clash of religious and secular worlds showcases Englander at his best.” —Esquire

“Ingenious.” —Houston Chronicle

“A wonderfully nimble performance. . . . kaddish.com smuggles profound moral questions under the dress of its light and diverting story.” —The Wall Street Journal

“[A] poignant coming-to-understanding about grief, the meaning of tradition, and love between fathers and sons.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[A] delight of a novel. . . . A marvelous comic fable. . . . Englander’s expansive imagination is such that he can convincingly write the part of a secular Jewish hipster and a born-again Jew—and do it with the Yiddish inflections of a Borscht Belt comedian.” —Associated Press

“A rollicking, generous-hearted tale of faith, identity and family. . . . Englander’s best novel so far.” —Financial Times

“Tantalizing. . . . Englander’s prose is always sprightly. He makes it easy to turn the page.” —The Forward

“With his usual wit and irreverence . . . Nathan Englander spins out a tale. . . . There’s still a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humor in the story that follows . . . but it’s also an earnest look at belief, at ritual, at mourning, and at family ties.” —Vanity Fair

“kaddish.com is funny but also profound, a saga of spiritual transformation. . . . Amid the chaos in which we all live nowadays, [the novel] is a bright light in a dark world.” —Jewish Journal

“[There is] a hum of suspense behind this slim tale that belies its subject.” —Vulture

“Simultaneously humorous and deeply moving. . . . [An] excellent comic dissection of Jewish-American life. . . . This novel reads like Chaim Potok filtered through the sensibility of Mel Brooks.” —Publishers Weekly

“Humorous and moving. . . . Englander is a master at displaying the way a single decision, made in a private moment, can stay with us for the rest of our lives and haunt our future.” —Bookforum

“Englander is mischievously hilarious, nightmarish, suspenseful, inquisitive, and deliriously tender in this concentrated tale of tradition and improvisation, faith and love.” —Booklist

“Part fable, part magic realism, part mystery, deeply touching, occasionally weird, almost always funny.” —Jewish Standard