The Book of Jonah: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, February 2014: This novel reads like the literary lovechild of filmmaker Albert "Lost in America" Brooks and author Joshua "Then We Came to the End" Ferris. On the surface, it’s a comedy about a smart, successful guy--a young Manhattan lawyer--who, despite his big-deal job and not-one-but-two wonderful women in love with him, can’t seem to be happy. So far, so annoying, right? But wait: don’t throw the book across the room just yet. The task Feldman has set for himself is to make us understand, even to like, Jonah--and by the time our hero has maneuvered himself out of his glam life (through a half-hearted attempt at corporate whistleblowing), we’re rooting for him. And then there’s Judith, Jonah’s brainiac counterpart: a young woman orphaned by 9/11, a young woman also seeking solace, albeit in different ways. (Her sections of the novel are so strong you might ask why Feldman didn’t name his debut The Book of Judith.) When a chance meeting puts these two lost souls together, they are both forever changed. While it’s based very loosely (mercifully) on the biblical story of the same name, and for all that Jonah’s and Judith’s Jewishness is a factor in the novel, The Book of Jonah is more than a religious parable. It’s a universal, timeless tale of loss and the longing for meaning. --Sara Nelson