The Chosen

The Chosen, written by Chaim Potok, is a book about a very religious Jewish boy named Reuven Malter who lives in Brooklyn and goes to one of several yeshivas, or schools of religion for Jews. The yeshiva Reuven attends is run by his father, and does not teach the religion as rigorously as most of the other yeshivas do, which makes him and his father targets for criticism within the community. In the first scene of the book his yeshiva plays another one in a baseball game, in which Reuven gets his eye hit with a baseball and is escorted to the hospital. This injury is done on purpose by the more religious yeshiva team. Reuven, at first, hates the other team and refuses to see them when they try to apologize, but as he develops and matures, he eventually talks with the more religious yeshiva students and comes to make a friend out of one. So far, this book has been about friendships, religious clashes, and the on going World War 2 in the background of the story. While I have not read much of it so far, it is very well written and anyone who likes realistic fiction will sure to be a fan of this book.