Allegra Goodman’s novels include The Chalk Artist, Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Commentary, and Ploughshares and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of short stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion, and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Award in Fiction, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass.
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Total ImmersionStoriesFrom"Wish List"
As Frankel muses on Progress in his Hillman Minx, Ed Markowitz wearily drives a rented Fiat to the Oriental Institute. He had not wanted to go on the day of his arrival, but this is the only time he can be sure to see Mujahid Rashaf, who is returning to Saudi Arabia within the week. Rashaf is an Oxford fellow and the son of a merchant prince. He will provide just the reasoned yet religious opinions that Markowitz seeks for his book, Terrorism: A Civilized Creed.
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Total ImmersionStoriesFrom"And Also Much Cattle"
The baby rabbis are nineteen. They aren’t quite rabbis yet, but they will be next year. They’ve finished their schooling and begun traveling with white shirts from home and food in plastic bags. They carry candlesticks, tefillin, tanachs, and press releases. They plan to get in touch with Jewish college students at the University of Hawaii, the local newspapers and radio. But tonight they look small and young as they sit together on the piano bench, backs to the keyboard, covered for the holiday.
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Total ImmersionStoriesFrom"Clare"
Clare never bathes. She is wanted by the police for writing poetry. Why should she wait for them like Marat, alone and naked in the bathtub? Her life is doubly dangerous because she translates. She is wanted by the police in Germany and the nuns in Spain—they kept her in wards with crucifixes over the beds, locked doors. They want her words; they pick at her brain. They would lock her in her room like a prisoner in a tower, spinning their straw into English. Clare never works in her room. She has to keep moving.
Total Immersion:Stories
"Allegra Goodman's new novel has so many compelling ingredients. Where, then, to start? Perhaps, as with food labels, it would be best to begin with the biggest: an irresistible story . . . If you're hankering for a feast of love, let yourself fall under the spell of Allegra Goodman's delicious tale. You won't leave hungry." —The New York Times Book Review [on The Cookbook Collector]
“To call this a Jewish novel, or even a religious novel would be to simplify it unfairly. Kaaterskill Falls reads like a realist novel from a century or more ago. Goodman’s clear writing recalls Fielding, Austen, Balzac, Tolstoy. The book also recalls the tradition of landscape in American writing: Emerson’s sublime nature, Thoreau’s woods, Emily Dickinson’s slant of light.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune
“The author’s virtuosity turns not only complacent yentas, but everyone into treats. Her ‘touch’ reminds me of John Singer Sargent’s painting technique, the brush strokes seemingly casual yet sure, always the exact—and unlikely—equivalent of a shadow or reflected gleam.” —Newsday [on The Family Markowitz]
“Exceptionally well-written: funny and wise and keenly observed . . . One of the most engaging, maddening and recognizable families to come along in years . . . an enchanting book.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times [on The Family Markowitz]
Selected Works
- Print Books
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- Bookshop
- Print Books
- Find your local bookstore (via IndieBound)
- Barnes & Noble
- E-Books
- Kobo
- Google Books
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