kaddish.com

A novel

By: Nathan Englander

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

The celebrated Pulitzer finalist and prize-winning author of Dinner at the Center of the Earth and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank delivers his best work yet, a streamlined comic masterpiece about a son’s failure to say Kaddish for his father.
Larry is the secular son in a family of Orthodox Brooklyn Jews. When his father dies, it’s his responsibility to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. To the horror and dismay of his sister, Larry refuses—imperiling the fate of his father’s soul. To appease her, Larry hatches an ingenious if cynical plan, hiring a stranger through a website called kaddish.com to recite the prayer and shepherd his father’s soul safely to rest.
Sharp, irreverent, hilarious, and wholly irresistible, Englander’s tale of a son who makes a diabolical compromise ingeniously captures the tensions between tradition and modernity—a book to be devoured in a single sitting whose pleasures and provocations will be savored long after.

Critic reviews

One of Esquire’s Most Anticipated Books of 2019
A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2019
The Millions Most Anticipated for 2019
One of Vulture’s Most Anticipated in 2019
A Boston Globe Most Anticipated for 2019
One of Read It Forward’s Most Anticipated for 2019
One of TIME’s Most Anticipated for March 2019


"Sublime...kaddish.com reads like a modern-day Hasidic tale in which religious characters are bedeviled by the challenges of upholding God's word in an all too human world... Kafka and Roth's influences are felt in Englander's work... In this tender, wry and entertaining novel, Englander nimbly juggles these possibilities, creating an endearing hero who stumbles through a world in which the holy and profane are intertwined."
—The New York Times

"The humor of kaddish.com is infused with delight... What a rare blessing to find a smart and witty novel about the unexpected ways religious commitment can fracture a life — and restore it."
—Washington Post

"A marvelous comic fable... Englander’s expansive imagination is such that he can convincingly write the part of a secular Jewish hipster and a born-again Jew - and do it with the Yiddish inflections of a Borscht Belt comedian... [A] delight of a novel."
—AP

"Tantalizing.. Elegant... Englander’s prose is always sprightly. He makes it easy to turn the page."
—Forward

"A delight... kaddish.com is a lighthearted, typically offbeat romp from the fertile imagination of novelist Nathan Englander."
—American Jewish World

"Englander portrays that frantic quest--one that jeopardizes Shuli's marriage, his job, even his sanity—with curiosity and deep sympathy, evoking a response that transcends the boundaries of any particular faith."
—Shelf Awareness

"Englander is mischievously hilarious, nightmarish, suspenseful, inquisitive, and deliriously tender in this concentrated tale of tradition and improvisation, faith and love."
—Booklist

"[An] excellent comic dissection of Jewish-American life...This novel reads like Chaim Potok filtered through the sensibility of Mel Brooks. Englander writes cogently about Jewish-American assimilation, and, in his practiced hands, he makes Shuli’s journey, both outer and inner, a simultaneously humorous and deeply moving one."
—Publishers Weekly

"Englander demonstrates his skill at placing timeless concerns of Judaism in sharply modern circumstances."
—Kirkus Reviews

Entertaining and informative

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the narrator was perfect. Just enough humour to keep it entertaining while also being informative in the Jewish customs of saying kaddish for a lost loved one.

Strange and incredibly male

This book is the inside account of a narcissistic male character with very little that actually happens. Don’t recommend.

Kaddish. Com

I found the story predictable. Not at all surprised by anything. The performance was done.

quite a religious mystery!

between the religuous fervor of a prodigal son and the synocism of a criminal, the storyteller weaves quite a maze of conflicting motives and conflicted consciences. As any good mystery should, the reader is completely taken off-guard by the last few chapters.
The narrator did an excellant job of rendering the accent and subculture of hasidim, drawing his characters as familiar loveable men and women. Even the scoundrels we can empathize with to some extent. There are places where he speaks rapidly using yiddish and Hebrew phrases that I couldnt catch. But otherwise a very good speaker.

Almost Perfect

The narrator had a little trouble with consistency between Ashkenazic and Sephardic pronunciation but was otherwise great. Some pronunciation choices made me cringe.

The ending was a bit disappointing, a little too G-Rated for a book that decidedly was not. Fun, entertaining and well worth the time.