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When radical New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff is felled by a stroke, his wife, Audrey, uncovers a secret that forces her to reexamine everything she thought she knew about their forty-year marriage. Joel's children will soon have to come to terms with this discovery themselves, but for the meantime, they are struggling with their own dilemmas and doubts.
Rosa, a disillusioned revolutionary, has found herself drawn into the world of Orthodox Judaism and is now being pressed to make a commitment to that religion. Karla, a devoted social worker hoping to adopt a child with her husband, is falling in love with the owner of a newspaper stand outside her office. Ne'er-do-well Lenny is living at home, approaching another relapse into heroin addiction.
In the course of battling their own demons—and one another—the Litvinoff clan is called upon to examine long-held articles of faith that have formed the basis of their lives together and their identities as individuals. In the end, all the family members will have to answer their own questions and decide what—if anything—they still believe in.
"Starred Review. Though some may be initially put off by the characters' coldness ... readers with a certain mindset will have a blast watching things get worse." - Publishers Weekly.
"Heller writes with insight and honesty about the pain involved in testing one's beliefs and the possibility of growth in the process." - Library Journal.
"Tom Wolfe might once have had vicious fun with such material, but this novel lacks the edge to make it sharper than soap opera." - Kirkus Reviews.
"The Believers is an astonishingly well-observed slow burner, its virtuoso prose compressed and beautiful. Zoë Heller possesses true brilliance as a writer." - The Guardian (UK).
"What could easily be a depressing, melodramatic and cloying treatise on spirituality and family values is thankfully rescued by Heller's instinct for biting, no-nonsense tragicomedy." - Telegraph (UK).
"It has to be said that hardly any character in this novel escapes Heller's caustic gaze – and usually, like Audrey's generous, long-suffering friend Jean, they're not much interested in politics or religion. In mitigation, the unrelenting cynicism saves the material from ever growing earnest." - The Independent (UK).
"In the end The Believers, although neatly structured, adroitly written and exploring a heroically wide range of fashionable social issues, from obesity and adoption to Zionism and adultery, is a novel that leaves its questions unanswered. The reader closes the volume with a faint sense of having been cheated of the narrative promised by the assurance of the opening pages with their bittersweet blend of ideology and hope." - The Times (UK).
This information about The Believers was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Zoe Heller is the author of two previous novels, Everything You Know and What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. She lives in New York.
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