THE GIFT OF ASHER LEV by Chaim Potok

From the moment of his spectacular debut in 1967 with The Chosen, Chaim Potok has been recognised as a uniquely moving chronicler of family life and of the American Jewish experience, an inspired portrayer of spiritual struggle.  

Asher Lev is a devout Hasidic Jew who, against powerful odds, has become a painter of international renown.  For twenty years he has lived in France, far from the insular Brooklyn community where he grew up.  When an uncle dies, Asher makes the journey back to America, and almost immediately finds himself plunged into the conflict - the culture he was born into and that which he has forged for himself - which compelled his exile years before.  Forced once again to choose between the sacred and the worldly, the decision he makes will affect not only his own life but that of the entire community, the sanctity of his family and, most profoundly, the fate of his son.

The Gift Of Asher Lev is the work of a master storyteller.  It is a generous, insightful evocation of the life of the spirit in its religious and artistic impulses, the moving tale of a man who must negotiate a difficult, but ultimately exalting, balance between the two.

Hard cover, good condition, although the paper is yellowing a bit.  370 pages, all intact.