Hope: a Tragedy

A Novel

By: Shalom Auslander

Narrated by: Shalom Auslander

The rural town of Stockton, New York, is famous for nothing: No one was born there, no one died there, nothing of any historical import at all has ever happened there, which is why Solomon Kugel, like other urbanites fleeing their pasts and histories, decided to move his wife and young son there. To begin again. To start anew. But it isn't quite working out that way. His ailing mother stubbornly holds on to life, and won't stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she never actually suffered through. To complicate matters further, some lunatic is burning down farmhouses just like the one he bought. And when, one night, Kugel discovers history-a living, breathing, thought-to-be-dead specimen of history-hiding upstairs in his attic, bad quickly becomes worse.

The critically acclaimed writer Shalom Auslander's debut novel is a hilarious and disquieting examination of the burdens and abuse of history, propelled with unstoppable rhythm and filled with existential musings and mordant wit. It is a comic and compelling story of the hopeless longing to be free of those pasts that haunt our every present.

Critic reviews

"A virtuoso humorist, and a brave one: beware Shalom Auslander; he will make you laugh until your heart breaks.” – New York Times Book Review

“A caustic comic tour de force.” – NPR

“Poisonously funny…. Like an unintentional bark of laughter at a funeral.” – Entertainment Weekly

“Staggeringly nervy… Other fiction writers have gotten this fresh with Anne Frank. But they don’t get much funnier… [Auslander] is an absurdist with a deep sense of gravitas… It’s a tall order for Mr. Auslander to raise an essentially comic novel to this level of moral contemplation. Yet Hope: A Tragedy succeeds shockingly well.” – New York Times

“Shalom Auslander writes like some contemporary comedic Jeremiah, thundering warnings of disaster and retribution. What makes him so terrifyingly funny is that he isn’t joking.” — Howard Jacobson, author of The Finkler Question and winner of the Man Booker Prize

“A wonderful, twisted, transgressive, heartbreaking, true, and hugely funny book. It will make very many people very angry. It will also make very many people very happy.” — A. L. Kennedy, author of Day

“Can the darkest events of the twentieth century and of all human history be used to show the folly of hope? And can the result be so funny that you burst out laughing again and again? If you doubt this is possible, read Hope: A Tragedy. You won’t regret it.” — John Gray, author of Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Classic Auslander

If you aren't familiar with Auslander's work, approach with caution. This book is exactly what I expected: dark, edgy and brilliant. It is incredibly well crafted, deeply irreverent and laden with what I consider excessive use of "profane" language. Tho

Got to ch 6 and quit

I thought it would be funnier based on others' reviews but I didn't grab me.

Hilarious! Like being buried alive!

I don't think this book is funny. I don't mean that in a humorless - "you shouldn't joke about the holocaust" - kind of way. What I mean is this: however appealing Auslander's prose, there isn't enough wit in the world to lighten this deeply disturbing, painfully stagnant story of the holocaust.

I heard Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan compare the novel (favorably) to someone dressing his daughter as Jon Bonet Ramsey for Halloween. Weird analogy. I honestly don't see how there can be a 'taste' issue for a book that could not be more horrifically depressing. Only the undead and buried are suffrering here.

I love Shalom Auslander's TAL-ish voice and his sharp, insightful prose. I've given the overall recording three stars because I think the run-in-place, extended-short-story-esque plot would be better as a read then as a listen. As a listen, it's fairly relentlessly grim.

An excellent farce, if a little long

Would you consider the audio edition of Hope: A Tragedy to be better than the print version?

Yes I would because the author/reader made it humorous with inflections, etc. I read it for a book club and would not have read it otherwise, so the audio version allowed me to do so more easily/quickly.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hope: A Tragedy?

The ending. The interactions between Kugel and his mother as well as the scene at the Realtor's office stuck with me. Also his mother's comments about the Armenian genocide as "contrasted" to the holocaust.

Which character – as performed by Shalom Auslander – was your favorite?

Kugel & his mother.

Any additional comments?

Others have said it all on audible & amazon reviews much better than I can. I will say in wanting to discuss the book right afterword, I read many of those reviews to help me process the book. There are some great ones out there. I wouldn't have read this book without it being assigned in my book club. But I am very glad I did. It is one that will stick with me. I do think Mr. Auslander could have accomplished the same poignant result with a shorter version of the book. However, in looking back, it's interesting to think about how the protagonist's neuroses grew & took hold.

Darkly humorous and a little disturbing

I grew up horrified by the Holocaust. I read Anne Frank when I was in junior high. In high school I read a three-volume documentary of antisemitism throughout history. I have to admit that I didn't know what to think about a book whose theme is, "never forgetting the Holocaust is not the same as talking about it all the time." I'm not sure even now that it's OK for a non-Jew to think this book is funny. OK, I admit it. I think it's funny. But I'm a little uncomfortable with thinking that.