Jewish Fiction & Literature, Phases of Life - Fiction, Literary Styles & Movements - Fiction

The Sensualist

Name: The Sensualist
Author: Daniel Torday
ISBN: 9780983658542

by Daniel Torday

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

Fiction. Jewish Studies. Raised in Baltimore in the '90s, 17-year-old Samuel Gerson is ready to be rid of his high school baseball team, his protective upbringing, and the tight-knit Jewish community in which he's spent his whole life. But when he befriends enigmatic Dmitri Zilber, a recent Russian Jewish immigrant who is obsessed with the works of Dostoevsky, Samuel's world begins to shift. In the wake of his grandfather's suicide, as his life increasingly entangles with that of Dmitri and his beautiful sister Yelizaveta, it sets in motion a series of events that culminates in a disturbing act of violence. A quietly devastating portrait of late adolescence, The Sensualist examines the culture we inherit as it collides with the one we create.

"I throw at you, without reservation, this adjective: masterful. This book is fast and warm, fraught and intimate—and no slouch in the funny department, either. Daniel Torday's voice is entirely his own. Baltimore is his. Dmitri Zilber is a brilliant character, and I am in love with his sister. I am constantly happy to be in their presence."—Adam Levin

Winner of the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for Outstanding Debut Fiction

About the Author, Daniel Torday

Daniel Torday's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, Glimmer Train, Harper Perennial's Fifty-Two Stories, Harvard Review and The Kenyon Review. He currently serves as Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College.