From Publishers Weekly
Lester, author of the critically acclaimed novel Do Lord Remember Me and the memoir Lovesong, melds the classic college mystery with deeply theological ruminations on suffering and death. Rebecca Nachman is a former rabbi whose emotional failures in relating to the members of her synagogue cause her to seek refuge in a small college community in northern Vermont, where she works as a therapist. When one student who had come to her for counseling is found strangled in Boston, Rebecca chastises herself for failing to see signs of trouble and realizes she knows the identity of the killer. But the murder mystery is only a subplot in a larger, much more compelling story of theodicy. When Rebecca, the child of Holocaust survivors, comes to possess a Torah scroll that the Nazis stole from a shtetl in 1944, she becomes the "rabbi" of the village's dead, whose spirits visit her each night to say Kaddish. Lester's use of magical realism takes a masterful turn when God himself begins visiting Rebecca, anxious for her to read his autobiography (which has been rejected by the likes of Maimonides, Akiba and Augustine) and know the truth about him—that he is lonely, morally ambivalent and fascinated with evil. Although the murder mystery is predictable, the real mystery of this novel—the mercurial nature of God—is richly absorbing. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Was God at Auschwitz? Whose side is God on? The child of Holocaust survivors, Rebecca is both rabbi and therapist, and she knows that God is not all powerful, all good, or always right. When her congregation at a Vermont college acquires a Torah salvaged from a Polish community that was liquidated by the Nazis, the dead Jews talk to her, and a black Jewish angel brings her God's autobiography. She reads it, the first ever to do so, and when God visits her, she is shocked to discover his identity and his desperate need. Many readers will also be shocked and angry. But Lester, who describes his spiritual conversion in Lovesong: Becoming a Jew (1985), blends the magic realism and fierce spiritual debate with a gripping contemporary story of murder and suicide on campus. In true Yiddish style, he writes with the irony and intensity and sometimes dark comedy (What should Rebecca wear for her date with God?) that dramatize the Jewish belief that good and evil coexist in people and in God. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Rebecca Nachman is a Rabbi without a synagogue. Having resigned from her dwindling congregation, she now works as a college counselor at a small Vermont college advising students about private matters and offering the "Jewish perspective" on issues raised at faculty dinner parties.

Deeply lonely and on the edge of losing her faith, she comes into possession of a Torah, the last relic of Czechowa, a village of Polish Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. With the Torah, the unquiet spirits of the village dead begin to visit Rebecca. On one visit they leave a manuscript written in Hebrew and titled My Life, an autobiography by God who, like any eager author, is seeking a sympathetic reader. No one has ever finished reading the manuscript, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Maimonides, and Augustine. God thinks Rebecca will.

Rebecca's life is further complicated when one of her advisees-a troubled young woman who seemed on the verge of confessing something-is found murdered. As the college struggles to comprehend the tragedy and a police investigation is launched, Rebecca begins reading, and so comes to confront the central challenge to her faith in His most troubling and unlikely incarnation.

Julius Lester's first adult novel in more than a decade, The Autobiography of God marks the return of an utterly original and provocative voice in American letters, addressing religion with wicked humor and profound reverence.


From the Back Cover
Praise for Julius Lester and his previous books

Lovesong: Becoming a Jew

"A spiritual journey such as Lester's demands our respect."
- Richard Gilman, The Los Angeles Times

"A moving memoir...Mr. Lester has paid attention, so it's worth paying attention to him."
- Joel Oppenheimer, The New York Times Book Review


And All Our Wounds Forgiven

"Lester belongs with writers like William Faulkner and Ralph Ellison."
- The Washington Post Book World


Do Lord Remember Me

"This is an important book. It tells the truth and tells it eloquently. It is gentle poetry and biting prose. I love this book. I love Julius Lester."
- Maya Angelou

"[A] convincing, tender account of black life through the civil rights movement and into the present....The writing is distinguished by a simplicity and clarity that seems exactly right."
- People

"An intense and passionate story of family, politics, and religion."
- Ebony



About the Author
Julius Lester is the author of over 30 books for children and adults, for which he has received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, ALA Notable Book, and Smithsonian Magazine Best Book of the Year. He lives in Belcherdown, MA.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Rebecca Nachman is a rabbi without a synagogue. Having resigned from her dwindling congregation, she now works as a college counselor at a small Vermont college advising students about private matters and offering the "Jewish perspective" on issues raised at faculty dinner parties." "Lonely and on the edge of losing her faith, she comes into possession of a Torah, the last relic of Czechowa, a village of Polish Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. With the Torah, the unquiet spirits of the village dead begin to visit Rebecca. On one visit they leave a manuscript written in Hebrew and titled My Life, an autobiography by God, who, like any eager author, is seeking a sympathetic reader. No one has ever finished reading the manuscript, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Maimonides, and Augustine. God thinks Rebecca will." Rebecca's life is further complicated when one of her advisees - a troubled young woman who seemed on the verge of confessing something - is murdered. As the college struggles to comprehend the tragedy and a police investigation is launched, Rebecca begins reading the manuscript, and so comes to confront the central challenge to her faith in His most troubling and unlikely incarnation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Lester, author of the critically acclaimed novel Do Lord Remember Me and the memoir Lovesong, melds the classic college mystery with deeply theological ruminations on suffering and death. Rebecca Nachman is a former rabbi whose emotional failures in relating to the members of her synagogue cause her to seek refuge in a small college community in northern Vermont, where she works as a therapist. When one student who had come to her for counseling is found strangled in Boston, Rebecca chastises herself for failing to see signs of trouble and realizes she knows the identity of the killer. But the murder mystery is only a subplot in a larger, much more compelling story of theodicy. When Rebecca, the child of Holocaust survivors, comes to possess a Torah scroll that the Nazis stole from a shtetl in 1944, she becomes the "rabbi" of the village's dead, whose spirits visit her each night to say Kaddish. Lester's use of magical realism takes a masterful turn when God himself begins visiting Rebecca, anxious for her to read his autobiography (which has been rejected by the likes of Maimonides, Akiba and Augustine) and know the truth about him-that he is lonely, morally ambivalent and fascinated with evil. Although the murder mystery is predictable, the real mystery of this novel-the mercurial nature of God-is richly absorbing. (Nov. 17) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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