The Believers (2008) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Audrey: The wife of Joel, a British Ex-Patriot who considers herself an activist.
• Rosa: Add a description of this character.
• Joel: Prominent leftist lawyer and activist.
• Karla
• Jean
• Lenny
• Mike
• Raphael
• Tanya
• Hannah
• Daniel
• Mrs. Mee
• Chris
• Berenice
• Mr. Riskin
• Carol
• Nicholas
• Jason
• Julie
• Susan
• Melinda
• Mrs. Gates
• Dave
• Dr. Krauss
• Kate
• Hassani
• Jane
• Laura
• Karen
• Mrs. Reinman
• Mrs. Levine
• Colin
• Esther
• Khaled
• Mrs. Greenberg
• Mrs. Litvinoff
• Michelle
• Sylvia
• Leah

Quotes edit see section history

• “Embarrassing the prejudices of your countrymen was never quite as gratifying as you thought it would be; the countrymen somehow never embarrassed enough. It was safer, on the whole, to enjoy your moral victory in silence and leave the bastards guessing.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Antonio Gramsci’s line about being “a pessimist because of intelligence and an optimist by will.”

  Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers

• termagant—it was too late. Her anger had become a part of her. It was a knotted thicket in her gut, too dense to be cut down and too deeply entrenched in the loamy soil of her disappointments to be uprooted.

  Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers

• “As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived.”

  Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers

• Depression, in Karla’s experience, was a dull, inert thing—a toad that squatted wetly on your head until it finally gathered the energy to slither off.

  Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers

• Married life was like good health: there was no bloody point to it if you could not occasionally abuse it, or take it for granted.

  Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers

• It was as if suffering had become so integral to her identity that the prospect of any real, material improvement in her life would pose a threat to her deepest sense of self: she had invested her entire personhood on a horse called Put-Upon, and she was damned if she was going to change her bet now.

  Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers

• That is the crucial lesson of the Sinaitic revelation—God doesn’t need our perfect understanding or even our perfect faith. What he wants is our commitment, our actions.”

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• Audrey turned to her. “You want to know what I’d do if the truth revealed itself to me and it wasn’t the truth I wanted to find?” “Yes.” Audrey smiled. “I’d reject it.”

  Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers

• How had she ended up like this, imprisoned in the role of harridan? Once upon a time, her brash manner had been a mere posture—a convenient and amusing way for an insecure teenage bride, newly arrived in America, to disguise her crippling shyness. People had actually enjoyed her vituperation

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• mendacious, indolent fuckup, that was all—a mortifying reminder of a failed experiment.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York
• America
• Perry Street
• Brooklyn
• Nana
• Israel
• Monsey
• Cuba
• Judaism
• Manhattan
• England
• Afghanistan

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Zoë Heller (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Finalist, 2010)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Domestic Life
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary