| Vendor | |
|---|---|
|
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| English | |
FERVOUR
FERVOUR tells the story of the Rosenthals, an orthodox Jewish family who come to believe their daughter is a witch, estranging their atheist son.
Think Joshua Cohen's The Netanyahus meets Robert Eggers' folk horror film The Witch.
Hannah and Eric are a successful couple living in North London with their three children, and Eric's father Yosef, a survivor of the camps. They are devout Jews who believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament, all except for their youngest son Tovyah. The death of Yosefthe family's link to pre-war Europethrows the family into disarray. Elsie, the model daughter, disappears for four days, plunging the family into a living nightmare. When she returns, just as mysteriously as she left, she is strangely altered. Witnessing the complete transformation of their daughter's personality and some increasingly hard-to-explain events, Hannah and Eric begin to suspect Elsie is under the influence of black magic. Tovyah, a brilliant university student, believes his sister is suffering a mental collapse caused by his parents' antiquated beliefs. But who is right? And can the family be reconciled before tearing itself apart?
At the heart of the novel are two questions. What does it mean to be bound to an ethical and metaphysical system thousands of years old? And if you reject that system, what is left of your Jewish identity? Through revolving points of view, any certainty in the face of these questions is undermined, and we witness a family trying to reckon with both historical and personal tragedy. The result is a fast-paced literary novel, with elements of horror.
As a contemporary Jewish story that draws on both biblical tales and recent politics, FERVOUR will appeal to readers of Francine Prose and Philip Roth. Its atmosphere has also been influenced by a few recent independent horror films, including Hereditary and St Maud, and so might interest readers of horror as well.
Toby was born in London to a secular father and a Jewish mother. He studied English at Oxford University, before moving to America to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at NYU where he was taught by E.L. Doctorow and Jonathan Safran Foer. Now thirty-three, he's returned to London where he works as a freelance tutor and writer.
He has published short stories and essays in various journals, including Carve Magazine and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and has been shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Prize and for the Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers Programme.
Hannah and Eric are a successful couple living in North London with their three children, and Eric's father Yosef, a survivor of the camps. They are devout Jews who believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament, all except for their youngest son Tovyah. The death of Yosefthe family's link to pre-war Europethrows the family into disarray. Elsie, the model daughter, disappears for four days, plunging the family into a living nightmare. When she returns, just as mysteriously as she left, she is strangely altered. Witnessing the complete transformation of their daughter's personality and some increasingly hard-to-explain events, Hannah and Eric begin to suspect Elsie is under the influence of black magic. Tovyah, a brilliant university student, believes his sister is suffering a mental collapse caused by his parents' antiquated beliefs. But who is right? And can the family be reconciled before tearing itself apart?
At the heart of the novel are two questions. What does it mean to be bound to an ethical and metaphysical system thousands of years old? And if you reject that system, what is left of your Jewish identity? Through revolving points of view, any certainty in the face of these questions is undermined, and we witness a family trying to reckon with both historical and personal tragedy. The result is a fast-paced literary novel, with elements of horror.
As a contemporary Jewish story that draws on both biblical tales and recent politics, FERVOUR will appeal to readers of Francine Prose and Philip Roth. Its atmosphere has also been influenced by a few recent independent horror films, including Hereditary and St Maud, and so might interest readers of horror as well.
Toby was born in London to a secular father and a Jewish mother. He studied English at Oxford University, before moving to America to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at NYU where he was taught by E.L. Doctorow and Jonathan Safran Foer. Now thirty-three, he's returned to London where he works as a freelance tutor and writer.
He has published short stories and essays in various journals, including Carve Magazine and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and has been shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Prize and for the Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers Programme.