Hope A Tragedy : a Novel — Content Guide for Parents
Found in this book
- ViolenceBrief
- ReligionSupportingJewish
- Race & cultureCentral
- ProfanitySupporting
- Sexual contentBrief
Not found
- Scary content
- Climate
- Gender roles
- Gender & orientation
Content themes
Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.
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Summaries and source quotes for every theme.
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Religion
PRESENTContains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.
About this book
The rural town of Stockton, New York, is famous for nothing: no one was born there, no one died there, nothing of any historical import at all has ever happened there, which is why Solomon Kugel, like other urbanites fleeing their pasts and histories, decided to move his wife and young son there.
To begin again. To start anew. But it isn t quite working out that way for Kugel
His ailing mother stubbornly holds on to life, and won t stop reminiscing about the Nazi concentration camps she never actually suffered through. To complicate matters further, some lunatic is burning down farmhouses just like the one Kugel bought, and when, one night, he discovers history a living, breathing, thought-to-be-dead specimen of history hiding upstairs in his attic, bad quickly becomes worse.
"Hope: A Tragedy" is a hilarious and haunting examination of the burdens and abuse of history, propelled with unstoppable rhythm and filled with existential musings and mordant wit. It is a comic and compelling story of the hopeless longing to be free of those pasts that haunt our every present."
Frequently asked questions
Is Hope A Tragedy : a Novel appropriate for a 7-year-old?
A local arsonist is burning down farmhouses, and the characters keep referring to Nazi camps and gas chambers. The main character is not observant but struggles with belief in God, and the book's Jewish identity and its jokes about God and Jewish tradition run through the story.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have violence?
Found (Brief): A local arsonist is burning down farmhouses, and the characters keep referring to Nazi camps and gas chambers.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have scary content?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have religion?
Found (Supporting, Jewish): The main character is not observant but struggles with belief in God, and the book's Jewish identity and its jokes about God and Jewish tradition run through the story.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have race & culture?
Found (Central): The story is built around the Holocaust and Jewish identity, including Kugel's mother imagining herself a camp survivor and an elderly Anne Frank hiding in the attic.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have profanity?
Found (Supporting): Characters swear often, including Anne Frank and Kugel's mother, and one reviewer calls the swearing incessant.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have climate?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have sexual content?
Found (Brief): Kugel's sister and her husband are described as having frequent noisy sex while trying to conceive.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have gender roles?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Hope A Tragedy : a Novel have gender & orientation?
Not found in the sources we checked.
