Description
Named one of “forty-two books to read before you die” by the Independent (UK)
2015 National Jewish Book Award Winner
2016 Winner of the GLCA New Writers Award in Nonfiction
One of Star Magazine’s “Fab 5 Can’t-Miss Entertainment Picks”
A moving and revealing exploration of Hasidic life, and one man’s struggles with faith, circle of relatives, and community
Shulem Deen was once raised to imagine that questions are dangerous. As a member of the Skverers, one of the insular Hasidic sects in the United States, he knows little about the outdoor world–only that it is to be shunned. His marriage at eighteen is arranged and several children soon follow. Deen’s first transgression–turning on the radio–is small, but his curiosity leads him to the library, and later the Internet. Soon he begins a feverish inquiry into the tenets of his religious beliefs, until, several years later, his faith unravels entirely.
Now a heretic, he fears being found out and ostracized from the only world he knows. His relationship with his circle of relatives at stake, he’s forced into a lifetime of deception, and begins a long struggle to hold on to those he loves most: his five children. In All Who Go Do Not Return, Deen bravely traces his harrowing loss of faith, whilst offering an illuminating look at a highly secretive world.