The same embrace

Michael Lowenthal

The novel tells the story of two young men struggling against a heritage of intolerance and silence. Twins Jacob and Jonathan were inseparable while growing up in their second-generation-American Jewish family. As adults, though, they are almost hopelessly estranged--Jacob is a gay activist in Boston, while Jonathan lives the strict, disciplined life of an Orthodox student at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. In the shadow of a tragedy, Jacob travels to Israel in the hopes of finding common ground with his brother. But his twin's new assurance and faith force Jacob to reexamine his own sexual and religious identities, as well as his place in his complex and haunted family history.