Fast's "New York Times" bestseller traces the lives of Rabbi David Hartman and his family through the postwar turmoil of mid-century America. David Hartman, a chaplain fresh out of the army, returned from the Second World War to the small New England town of Leighton Ridge. Rabbi to the fourteen Jewish families in his small community. It is here that he meets Martin Carter, the Congregation minister who will become his closed and lifelong friend. They and their wieves forge a bond that survives the unpleasant effects of a pectuliarly nasty small-town prejudice and the larger strains of a world swept by great upheavals and governed by power, greed, and abmition. From McCarthyism and nuclear spies, to civil rights and Vietnam, Hartman, along with Martin Carter help lead the town through the chaotic changes sweeping the nation.
The Outsider
Howard Fast
Howard Fast (1914-2003) was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style