Exodus: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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Description

When Deborah Feldman made the remarkable - and scandalous - decision to leave her family and loveless marriage, wholly rejecting her Hasidic roots, she found herself alienated from the only community she had ever known. Out of her experience came the incendiary bestselling memoir Unorthodox (Simon & Schuster, 2012), and just a few years later, Feldman has emerged on the cusp of a remarkable journey of self-discovery - a journey in which she begins her life anew, a single mother and a religious refugee, at the age of 26.

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Praise for Exodus

One woman's search to understand herself and her Jewish heritage. . . . Rich in details of Jewish life and the lives of her grandparents in the World War II era, [Feldman] sensitively portrays the inner struggles of accepting the pervasive feeling of survivor guilt and her own desires to understand the woman she was becoming. . . . An enthralling account of how one Orthodox Jewish woman turned her back on her religion and found genuineness and validity in her new life.Kirkus Reviews

Feldmans journey is undeniably and explicitly Jewish, but the aching need to find both a welcoming community and a sense of individuality is one that readers from all walks of life will be able to identify with. Those left unsatisfied with the abrupt ending to Unorthodox will enjoy the more hopeful conclusion to Feldmans second book as well as her more mature and increasingly eloquent writing style.Booklist

Overall, Exodus is a satisfying sequel to Unorthodox, which shows how Deborah Feldman went on to the next step after getting her own freedom from the bonds of a strictly insular society. . . . [A] chronicle of a continuing journey of self-discovery . . . There are many satisfying finds and revelations along the road, but there are also plenty of bumps, frustrations, disappointments, and pitfalls, which is expected when one spends their formative years being closed off from the rest of the outside world, and is confined to the boundaries of a Brooklyn neighborhood. . . . This book is more about the liberation of Deborah Feldman, and how she copes with this newfound sense of freedom and self-discovery, that can be a shock to some, or a declaration of independence for others.Stuart Nulman, Montreal Times

In her first memoir, Unorthodox, Feldman made the courageous choice to cut off ties with her family and the Satmar community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. . . . Now a divorced woman in her twenties, Feldman chronicles the next phase of her life in her new book [Exodus]. . . . A quest of self-discovery . . . Some of the most powerful scenes come when Feldman retraces the path of her female ancestors in Hungary and confronts the anti-Semitism of contemporary Europe. . . . Feldman ultimately discovers that her rightful place is wherever she happens to be.The New York Times Book Review

Author Bio

Deborah Feldman was raised in the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She now lives with her son in New England.