I Am Forbidden

A strong and compelling human story – Richard Jaffa * Birmingham Jewish Recorder *
Elegant, enthralling * New York Times *
Luminously beautiful * Sunday Telegraph *
Stunning * The New Yorker *
Takes us into the heart of the Hasidic community in New York, where two Hungarian-Romanian Jewish children orphaned during the barbarity of the Second World War are set to begin new lives – Elmore Leonard * Glasgow Sunday Herald *
Fascinating… Offers a glimpse into the real world of Hasidic life – Kerstin Hoge
Outstanding novel – Benjamin Evans * Sunday Telegraph (Seven) *
Using the language of the scriptures, Markovits depicts religion’s potential for both beauty and cruelty, and the inevitability of transgression even in the most devout life – Maria Crawford * Financial Times *
The writing is stunning, the execution flawless and the plot utterly gripping (4 stars) – Helen Cullen * Stylist *
An unusual, beautifully written novel * The Lady *

Anouk Markovits grew up in France, in an ultra-orthodox Satmar home. She attended a religious seminary in England instead of high school. She left home at the age of nineteen to avoid an arranged marriage. Markovits is the author of I Am Forbidden, which the New York Times described as an “elegant, enthralling novel” and which the Sunday Telegraph of London praised for “luminously beautiful prose.” The book was selected by Random House to re-launch its Hogarth imprint, originally founded in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Translations of I Am Forbidden are forthcoming in a dozen countries. Markovits’s first novel, Pur Coton, written in French, was published by Gallimard.

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