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Praise for The Book of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah 2019 Press 53.jpg

The Book of Jeremiah

Julie Zuckerman’s moving and engrossing debut novel-in-stories, THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH, tells the story of awkward but endearing Jeremiah Gerstler—the son of Jewish immigrants, brilliant political science professor, husband, father.

Jeremiah has yearned for respect and acceptance his entire life, and no matter his success, he still strives for more. As a boy, he was feisty and irreverent and constantly compared to his sweet and well-behaved older brother, Lenny. At the university, he worries he is a token hire. Occasionally, he’s combative with colleagues, especially as he ages. But there is a sweetness to Gerstler, too, and an abiding loyalty and affection for those he loves. When he can overcome his worst impulses, his moments of humility become among the best measures of his achievements.


Spanning eight decades and interwoven with the Jewish experience of the 20th century, Julie Zuckerman charts Jeremiah’s life from boyhood, through service in WWII, to marriage and children, a professorship and finally retirement, with compassion, honesty, and a respect that even Gerstler himself would find touching.

One of the characters in Julie Zuckerman’s novel in stories, The Book of Jeremiah, refers to the biblical book of the same title as “all doom and gloom,” but Zuckerman’s book about Jeremiah Gerstler and his family is anything but.  It contains considerable loss, trouble, sorrow, and suffering, but its thirteen stories are also laced with love, forgiveness, hope, optimism, and even what we might call salvation.  It is a book that acknowledges the darkness while leading the Gerstlers, and us, toward the light—and toward each other.  Reading these wise and moving stories, you’ll feel like a long-lost relative who’s returned home just in time for the family reunion.

David Jauss, author of Glossolalia: New & Selected Stories, Nice People: New & Selected Stories II and several other works of fiction, poetry and essays

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Press 53 is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and has been finding and sharing remarkable voices since October 2005. We have earned a reputation as a quality publishing house of short fiction and poetry collections. Press 53 books are distributed worldwide by Ingram Books and its partners.

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