The House of Love and Prayer

Praise

“Reich’s stories have a density to them: long paragraphs weighted with rich description, bricks placed carefully to build constructions capable of supporting the weight of history. But they do not make for labored reading. Rather, they build worlds worth returning to.” — Gwen E. Kirby, The New York Times Book Review

“Fearless, hysterically funny, and with the sharpest eye for truth and falsity, Tova Reich is a brilliant writer.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

“Moral, mordant, irreparably torn, Tova Reich is the conscience of the diaspora—of all diasporas—as she shows in her outstanding first collection of short fiction, The House of Love and Prayer.” — Joshua Cohen, author of Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, The Netanyahus

“Devastating satire. . . . startling premises and razor-sharp character sketches. Hers is no commonplace brilliance, however, and this book is full of black comedy at its most unsettling.”
— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“In her first short story collection, Reich portrays religious Jews in many settings. With TV shows such as Unorthodox and Shtisel, popular culture has increasingly turned its eye on Haredi Jews. In this same vein, Reich’s new book humanizes this often misunderstood and stereotyped demographic, including stories that showcase religious Jews in many different situations and settings, from Brooklyn to Israel to China. Reich shows us, for instance, a young girl overcome by shame who disappears in a forest on a school field trip in “The Lost Girl” . . . people dealing with the shadow of the Holocaust in several stories; and even “Dead Zone,” a speculative piece set in the mid-21st century in which Israel is no longer recognized as a state. These stories vivify the real and relatable people in the communities they portray even as they lay bare some of their flaws; rather than passing judgment, positive or negative, they show that Haredi people are just people, no less worthy of empathy and no more worthy of prurient curiosity than anyone else. Reich’s prose brims with authenticity, as she utilizes Hebrew and Yiddish words as their speakers would, without unnecessary translation. Moreover, her prose is fluid and engrossing; the reading experience is easy but rewarding and always a joy.
     ”An impressive collection that captures the complexity and diversity of the Haredi Jewish world.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Reich’s five novels . . . are volcanic satires of Jewish traditions and paradoxes, holy fools and wily wheelers and dealers. Her fervid, whirlwind yet pinpoint imagination and insights are potently distilled in her lacerating, often macabre, acidly funny short stories, collected here for the first time. . . . In these ingenious, disturbing, radically incisive, stinging, and hilarious tales, Reich wrestles with antisemitism, misogyny, deceit, profiteering, faith, and guilt. — Donna Seaman, Booklist

“Reich’s trademark subjects and recognizable style fill the pages of The House of Love and Prayer and Other Stories, the publication of which marks the first time her short fiction has been gathered into book form. … This much seems certain: If Reich’s novels have provoked strong reactions in the past, this collection will fuel vivid conversations, too. Try it in your book club—if you dare.” — Moment magazine