Authors: Chaim Potok

The Gift of Asher Lev (53 page)

Devorah writes me. Avrumel has lately taken to ignoring Shimshon and insists on walking to school by himself.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

C
HAIM
P
OTOK
was born and raised in New York City. He began to write fiction at the age of sixteen, was graduated with a B.A.
summa cum laude
in English literature, and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. An ordained rabbi, he served as an army chaplain in Korea for sixteen months, with, successively, a front-line medical battalion and an engineer combat battalion. He is the author of nine novels and of
Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews.
His first novel,
The Chosen,
was nominated for a National Book Award and received the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. Another of his novels,
The Promise,
was given the Athenaeum Prize, and
The Gift of Asher Lev
won the National Jewish Book Award. He died in 2002 at age 73.

A Fawcett Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1990 by Chaim Potok

Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-90671

eISBN: 978-0-307-57552-4

This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

v3.0

Table of Contents

Other Books by this Author

Title Page

Book One