Antisemite 144 - by Sam Apple (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Antisemite 144 by Sam Apple is a whip-smart, darkly funny debut novel about a secular Jewish guy, Aaron, with a rare medical condition: He's turning into a Hasidic Jew. At least, that's what Aaron suspects. His doctors diagnose him with a rare hormonal disorder that causes men to sprout prodigious beards. But could it really be a coincidence that the condition started right after Aaron's unsettling encounter with a Hasidic mystic? Aaron isn't sure, and the less sure he is about what's happening to him, the less sure he feels about everything else. There are echoes of Kafka and Roth and Larry David--but something entirely new is going on here, an alchemy all Apple's own. The result is a thrilling and profound literary experience. This is a book that stays with you long after you've put it down.

Review Quotes

"This brilliant comic novel continually mutates--werewolf story, Hasidic tale, family memoir--until you realize the transformations were the subject all along. This is hilarious, uncomfortable, and far sadder than it lets on."

--Jonathan Safran Foer, winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize

"Sam Apple is one of the smartest, most versatile, and funniest writers working today. This book is timely and timeless, and isn't just wise, but also profound. And did I mention how funny it is? It's a book about Jews, but it's so beautifully specific that the story manages to transcend the characters' particular backgrounds to become something truly universal. When I reached the last page, I was at once entirely satisfied and wished it would go on forever."

--Molly Antopol, National Book Award Finalist

"Sam Apple writes about human struggle with such exuberant humor, keen insight, and exquisite sensitivity. I loved this aging Teen Wolf of a narrator, and I love Sam Apple's wonderful gift for mixing comedy and sorrow, for drawing out all the cruelty, absurdity, wonder, and mystery from the so-called everyday."

--Karen Russell, MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize Finalist

"Sam Apple's novel is a hilarious romp through the hotter fires of our moment."

--Joshua Cohen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"Sam Apple, with his many talents, effortlessly navigates between comedy and drama, the peculiar and the ordinary. The prose is captivating, sharp, and brimming with confidence--I laughed out loud so many times."

--Weike Wang, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award

"This is a New York City novel. It's also a love story. It's funny and sad and slyly bookish. It reads like the spawn of some literary throuple, the love child of Philip Roth, Gary Shteyngart, and Larry David. Some nights, Franz Kafka and I. B. Singer join in the romp. I read it at the gym. I read it in line at the hardware store. Wherever you read it, just read it. It's that good."

--Joshua Henkin, winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for American Jewish Fiction

"'You're supposed to be funny-crazy, ' Maddie implores her (maybe crazy) boyfriend. 'Not crazy-crazy.' Sam Apple's novel, Antisemite 144, is funny-crazy--with a smattering of crazy-crazy for flavor. In his wry, ticklish, inimitable voice, Apple tells a story part werewolf, part Jewish joke, and all hilarious. Crisp, clever, a true pleasure."

--Max Gross, winner of a National Jewish Book Award

About the Author

Sam Apple is the author of three nonfiction titles: Ravenous, American Parent, and Schlepping Through the Alps. He has published short stories, personal essays, satires, and journalistic features on a wide range of topics. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Financial Times Magazine, and McSweeney's, among many other publications. Schlepping Through the Alps was a finalist for both the PEN America Award for a first work of nonfiction and the Koret Award for Young Jewish Writers. In 2005, Apple won the national Faux Faulkner parody contest. His work has been featured on "The Daily" and "Apple News+ Narrated" podcasts, as well as on CBS Mornings and CSPAN Book TV. He is on the faculty of the MA in Science Writing and MA in Writing programs at Johns Hopkins University.