Reuven Fenton 
Goyhood 
A Novel

Reuven Fentons novel Goyhoodis a brilliant debut about a devoutly Orthodox Jewish man who discovers in middle age that hes not, in fact, Jewish, and embarks on a remarkable road trip to come to grips with his fate; its Chaim Potoks The Chosenmeets Planes, Trains and Automobiles.Funny, poignant, and revelatory while plumbing the emotional depths of the relationship between estranged brothers, Goyhoodexamines what happens when one becomes unmoored from a comfortable, spiritual existence and must decide whether coincidence is in fact destiny. When Mayer (nee Marty) Belkin fled small town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought hed left his wasted youth behind. Now hes a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world – a dirt poor country boy reinvented in the image of God. But his mothers untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his neer-do-well twin brother David arent, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayers only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim? So begins the Belkins Rumspringa through Americas Deep South with Moms ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.