Disobedience (novel)
{{Short description|Novel about Judaism}}
{{About|the book by Naomi Alderman|the film based on the book |Disobedience (2017 film)}}
{{use British English|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox book|
| name = Disobedience: A Novel
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| image = Cover of Disobedience, book by Naomi Alderman.jpg
| caption = The front cover of the first edition (hardcover)
| author = Naomi Alderman
| illustrator =
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| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = {{plainlist|
- Penguin Books {{small|(UK)}}{{cite book|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/55719/disobedience/9780141025957/|title=Disobedience (official publisher's page)|publisher=Penguin Books|accessdate=25 June 2017}}
- Simon & Schuster/Touchstone {{small|(US)}}{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7432-9156-9|title=Fiction Book Review: Disobedience by Naomi Alderman|work=Publishers Weekly|date=17 July 2006|accessdate=25 June 2017}}
}}
| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback), e-book, audiobook
| pages = 256
| isbn = 9780670916283
| isbn_note =
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}}
Disobedience is the debut novel by British author Naomi Alderman. First published in the UK in March 2006, the novel has since been translated into ten languages. Disobedience follows a rabbi's bisexual daughter as she returns from New York to her Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon, London. Although the subject matter was considered somewhat controversial, the novel was well received and earned Alderman the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers and the 2007 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/naomi-alderman-the-power-book-disobedience-rachel-weisz-rachel-mcadams-a7381041.html|title=Naomi Alderman interview: 'The book's not mine anymore, the rights are sold'|work=The Independent|date=26 October 2016|first=Sarah|last=Jilani}}
Synopsis
The novel is presented with both an omniscient narrator and a first-person narrative of Ronit Krushka, a 32-year-old non-practising Orthodox Jew, who is working in New York as a financial analyst and having an affair with her married male boss. The death of her estranged father, a powerful rabbi, brings Ronit back to her childhood home in Hendon, London, where her provocative ways outrage the local Orthodox Jewish community. Discovering that her cousin Dovid, who is also her father's chosen successor, is married to her former lover, Esti, forces Ronit to rethink what she left behind.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3653503/A-prize-winning-portrait-of-a-very-unorthodox-jew.html|title=A prize-winning portrait of a very unorthodox jew|work=The Telegraph|date=2 July 2006|first=Lucy|last=Beresford|authorlink=Lucy Beresford}}
Development
Similar to her protagonist Ronit, Naomi Alderman grew up in the Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon before moving to New York, and the novel is about places Alderman is familiar with. However, Alderman has said that the novel is not based on events in her life.{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-rebel-who-came-home-1.209880|title=The rebel who came home|work=Haaretz|date=12 January 2007|first=Shiri|last=Lev-Ari}} According to Alderman, writing the novel led her to cease being a practising Jew.
Reception
=Critical response=
The novel received mixed reviews.
According to The Telegraph{{'}}s Lucy Beresford, "Despite some novelistic weaknesses, Alderman's commentary on Orthodox Judaism in the 21st century is thought-provoking and illuminating, and she has the comic's gift to assassinate from within with compassion." The New York Times{{'}} Elsa Dixler enjoyed the "acerbic and self-aware" Ronit, and concluded that: "Although the novel’s plot is somewhat creaky and its climax seems contrived, the strength of this insular congregation is clearly conveyed."{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/books/Dixler2.t.html|title=Fiction Chronicle|work=The New York Times|date=26 November 2006|first=Elsa|last=Dixler}} The San Francisco Chronicle{{'}}s Sara Peyton noted that: "at her best, Alderman provides a window into a world that appears at once strange and foreboding, revealing its human flaws as well as its spiritual beauty."{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Lesbian-caught-between-religion-and-outside-world-2489518.php|title=Lesbian caught between religion and outside world|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=10 September 2006|first=Sara|last=Peyton}}
On the other hand, the novel caused some controversy in the Orthodox Jewish community. The Jewish Chronicle gave the novel a scathing review,{{cite web|url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/interview-naomi-alderman-author-1-475220|title=Interview: Naomi Alderman, author|work=The Scotsman|date=11 April 2010}} while another Jewish paper refused to review it.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/28/naomi-alderman-interview-the-power|title=Naomi Alderman: 'I went into the novel religious and by the end I wasn't. I wrote myself out of it'|work=The Guardian|date=28 October 2016|first=Claire|last=Armitstead}} Writing for The Guardian, Dina Rabinovitch, herself an Orthodox Jew, gave the novel a poor review, commenting that "this feels like writing-by-numbers" and that "[n]one of the personalities here gets beyond the two-dimensional."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/mar/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview20|title=This is Hendon: Disobedience by Naomi Alderman gives Dina Rabinovitch the small-town blues|work=The Guardian|date=4 March 2006|first=Dina|last=Rabinovitch|authorlink=Dina Rabinovitch}}
=Accolades=
The novel earned Alderman the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers and the 2007 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Alderman was also selected as one of the Waterstones 25 Writers for the Future. The novel was a finalist for the Jewish Book Council's 2007 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature{{cite web|publisher=Jewish Book Council|url=http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/sami-rohr-prize-2007|title=Sami Rohr Prize 2007|accessdate=November 11, 2013|archive-date=11 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111111906/http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/sami-rohr-prize-2007|url-status=dead}} and 2008 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.{{cite book|url=http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Disobedience/Naomi-Alderman/9780743291576|title=Disobedience (official publisher's page)|date=5 September 2006 |publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=9781416540977 |accessdate=25 June 2017}}
Adaptations
A ten-part reading of an abridged serialisation of the novel was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime in 2006. The radio adaptation was read by Sara Kestelman and Tracy-Ann Oberman.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076x3s|title=Naomi Alderman - Disobedience: Episode 1|publisher=BBC}}
A film adaptation of the novel, directed by Sebastián Lelio with screenplay by Lelio and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, was completed in 2017. The film stars Rachel Weisz as Ronit, Rachel McAdams as Esti, and Alessandro Nivola as Dovid. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2017 and was generally well received by critics. Disobedience received a wide release in 2018.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/05/rachel-weisz-rachel-mcadams-adaptation-naomi-alderman-disobedience|title=Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams to star in adaptation of Disobedience|work=The Guardian|date=5 October 2016|first=Catherine|last=Shoardl}}
Translations
Since its publication, Disobedience has been translated into over ten languages, including:
- {{Langx|pl|Nieposłuszeństwo}} (Sic!, 2006: {{ISBN|9788360457054}})
- {{Langx|de|Ungehorsam}}, translated by Christiane Buchner and Miriam Mandelkow (Berlin Verlag Taschenbuch, 2007: {{ISBN|9783833305528}})
- {{Langx|it|Disobbedienza}}, translated by Maria Baiocchi (Nottetempo, 2007: {{ISBN|9788874521197}})
- {{Langx|hr|Neposluh}} (Algoritam, 2007: {{ISBN|9789532205312}})
- {{Langx|fr|La Désobéissance}}, translated by Hélène Papot (Éditions d'Olivier, 2008: {{ISBN|9782879295381}})
- {{Langx|hu|A rabbi meg a lánya|lit=The Rabbi and His Daughter}} (Ulpius-ház Könyvkiadó, 2010: {{ISBN|9789632543604}})
- {{Langx|pt|Disobediência}} (Saída de Emergência, 2017: {{ISBN|9789897730672}})
- {{Langx|nl|Ongehoorzaam}}, translated by Auke Leistra (Atlas Contact, 2018: {{ISBN|9789025452711}})
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://www.naomialderman.com/disobedience/ Naomialderman.com: Disobedience]
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Category:British novels adapted into films
Category:Novels about lesbian topics
Category:Simon & Schuster books
Category:Novels about bisexual topics