Unorthodox
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Unorthodox ist ein Enthüllungsbuch, das sich wie ein Roman liest." (Die Welt)
Am Tag seines Erscheinens führte "Unorthodox" schlagartig die Bestsellerliste der New York Times an und war sofort ausverkauft. Wenige Monate später durchbrach die Auflage die Millionengrenze. In der chassidischen Satmar-Gemeinde in Williamsburg, New York, herrschen die strengsten Regeln einer ultraorthodoxen jüdischen Gruppe weltweit. Deborah Feldman führt uns bis an die Grenzen des Erträglichen, wenn sie von der strikten Unterwerfung unter die strengen Lebensgesetze erzählt, von Ausgrenzung, Armut, von der Unterdrückung der Frau, von ihrer Zwangsehe. Und von der alltäglichen Angst, bei Verbotenem entdeckt und bestraft zu werden. Sie erzählt, wie sie den beispiellosen Mut und die ungeheure Kraft zum Verlassen der Gemeinde findet – um ihrem Sohn ein Leben in Freiheit zu ermöglichen. Noch nie hat eine Autorin ihre Befreiung aus den Fesseln religiöser Extremisten so lebensnah, so ehrlich, so analytisch klug und dabei literarisch so anspruchsvoll erzählt.
Die Buchvorlage zur erfolgreichen Netflix-Serie „Unorthodox“.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Born into the insular and exclusionary Hasidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn to a mentally disabled father and a mother who fled the sect, Feldman, as she recounts in this nicely written memoir, seemed doomed to be an outsider from the start. Raised by devout grandparents who forbade her to read in English, the ever-curious child craved books outside the synagogue teaching. Feldman's spark of rebellion started with sneaking off to the library and hiding paperback novels under her bed. Her boldest childhood revolution: she buys an English translation of the Talmud, which would otherwise be kept from her, so that she might understand the prayers and stories that are the fabric of her existence. At 17, hoping to be free of the scrutiny and gossip of her circle, she enters into an arranged marriage with a man she meets once before the wedding. Instead, having received no sex education from a culture that promotes procreation and repression simultaneously, she and her husband are unable to consummate the relationship for a year. The absence of a sex life and failure to produce a child dominate her life, with her family and in-laws supplying constant pressure. She starts to experience panic attacks and the stirrings of her final break with being Hasidic. It's when she finally does get pregnant and wants something more for her child that the full force of her uprising takes hold and she plots her escape. Feldman, who now attends Sarah Lawrence College, offers this engaging and at times gripping insight into Brooklyn's Hasidic community.
