Long-term Philadelphia area resident, rabbi and best-selling author, Chaim Potok died on July 23, 2002 at his suburban Philadelphia home. Potok is best known for his novels such as "The Chosen," "The Promise" and "My Name is Asher Lev." Here are our picks for the best novels by Chaim Potok.
1) The Chosen (1967)
Potok's most well known novel is the story of two boys - one a secular Jew, the other Hasidic - who become friends, and often rivals as they grow to manhood in the turbulent years of the 1940s in New York.
2) My Name is Asher Lev (1972)
Considered by many to be Potok's finest work, this novel tells the story of a young man who is overwhelmed by his need to paint for all of the world to see the expressions of his feelings and pain - which is strictly prohibited by the edicts of his Orthodox Jewish faith.
3) Davita's Harp (1985)
Set in 1930s through the 1950s in New York, this book tells the story of a young girl, born of a Jewish mother and gentile father, both radicals, and neither of whom have much in the way of faith. As she grows through the war years and the era of McCarthyism, she comes to find peace in the long abandoned
faith of her mother.
4) In the Beginning (1975)
Potok's story of a young Jewish boy who must battle his own poor health and young thugs in Depression-era Bronx and find his own way to the disappointment of his father.
5) The Promise
In this sequel to "The Chosen," boyhood friends Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders grow into manhood as they battle the prejudices from both inside and outside their faith.