BookFronter
The World Outside by Eva Wiseman

The World Outside

Kindle Edition

Eva Wiseman

Tundra · Ebook · April 8, 2014

An informative and powerful novel, The World Outside explores the life of a teenage girl in a fundamentalist Hasidic community who dreams of a different future.

Coming of Age20th-Century US YAJewish YAyoung
More
romance
Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
A teenage girl’s forbidden musical ambition meets faith, belonging, and a changing world.
Themes
Religious community and personal freedom, Artistic ambition, Intercommunity conflict
Genres
Jewish YA, 20th-Century US YA, Coming of Age

Nearest books

Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.

  1. Selling HopeKristin O'Donnell Tubb53% matchShares 20th-Century US YA
  2. The Beloved WildMelissa Ostrom56% matchShares Coming of Age
  3. Lovely, Dark, and DeepJustina Chen55% match
  4. The Judgment of Yoyo GoldIsaac Blum66% matchShares Jewish YA and Coming of Age
  5. Agnes at the End of the WorldKelly McWilliams, Brittany Pressley62% match
  6. The CrossingMandy Hager62% match
  7. A Brief Chapter in My Impossible LifeDana Reinhardt61% match
  8. Starbird Murphy and the World OutsideKaren Finneyfrock61% matchShares Coming of Age

For younger readers: Rifka Takes a Bow, Resistance (scholastic Gold)

For older readers: Yesteryear: a GMA Book Club Pick

Start with three books, and this one can be the first.

Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.

Start with this book

About this book

An informative and powerful novel, The World Outside explores the life of a teenage girl in a fundamentalist Hasidic community who dreams of a different future. Seventeen-year-old Chanie Altman lives the protected life of a Lubavitcher Hasidic girl in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, in 1991. Religion is the most important aspect of her life, and, like other Lubavitcher girls, she is expected to attend a seminary and to marry as soon as she graduates from high school.

Continue reading

But Chanie has a beautiful voice and dreams of becoming an opera singer - a profession forbidden to a Hasidic girl. When she meets David, a non-Hasidic Jewish boy, he opens the portals to the world outside her fundamentalist community. The Crown Heights riots break out, and the Lubavitchers are put under siege by their African-American neighbors. A tragedy occurs. Will Chanie stay in the fundamentalist community she has always known in a life that has been prescribed for her, or will she leave it behind to follow her dreams?

Faith and Possibility

A teenage girl’s forbidden musical ambition meets faith, belonging, and a changing world.

Come here for

  • Opera dreams set against community expectations
  • A coming-of-age story rooted in Crown Heights

Expect

  • Tension between religious belonging and personal ambition
  • Faith, romance, and the upheaval of 1991

Where it sits

Jewish YA79%
20th-Century US YA45%
Coming of Age35%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Jewish YA
  • YA Romance
  • New Experiences for Teens
Authors
Eva Wiseman
Publisher
Tundra
Published
April 8, 2014
Format
Ebook
Theme
Religious community and personal freedom · Artistic ambition · Intercommunity conflict
Reading lane
Jewish YA