
Goyhood
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mike Lenz
-
By:
-
Reuven Fenton
About this listen
Reuven Fenton's novel Goyhood is a brilliant debut about a devoutly Orthodox Jewish man who discovers in middle age that he's not, in fact, Jewish, and embarks on a remarkable road trip to come to grips with his fate.
When Mayer (nee Marty) Belkin fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he'd left his wasted youth behind. Now he's a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world.
But his mother's untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne'er-do-well twin brother David aren't, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer's 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 America's Deep South with Mom's 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up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.
©2024 Reuven Fenton (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Ain’t No Grave
- By: Mary Glickman
- Narrated by: Alexandra Cohler
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine-year-olds Max Sassaport and Ruby Johnson are best friends who can't imagine a world where they aren't together. Unfortunately, no one-not their families, nor anyone else in rural Georgia in 1906-wants to see a White middle-class Jewish boy get too close to the Black daughter of a sharecropper. It's only a matter of time before fate will separate the two. And that day comes on the eve of Ruby's womanhood, when a violent act sends her running from her home to the life of a child laborer at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta.
-
-
Lovely!
- By Anna on 09-11-24
By: Mary Glickman
-
When We Flew Away
- A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired people for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.
-
-
More Timely Than Ever
- By Lisbeth on 11-09-24
By: Alice Hoffman
-
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew
- By: Emmanuel Acho, Noa Tishby
- Narrated by: Emmanuel Acho, Noa Tishby
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Informative and accessible, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew has a unique structure: Acho asks questions and Tishby answers them with deeply personal, historical, and political responses. This book will enable anyone to explain—and identify—what Jewish hatred looks like. It is a much-needed lexicon for this fraught moment in Jewish history.
-
-
Such an important read today, and always.
- By Anonymous User on 05-05-24
By: Emmanuel Acho, and others
-
The Safekeep
- By: Yael van der Wouden
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
-
-
Beautiful. Unexpected.
- By cm on 01-15-25
-
Don't Forget to Write
- A Novel
- By: Sara Goodman Confino
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye. To Marilyn’s surprise, Ada’s not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She’s sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules…mostly.
-
-
So good!
- By Kristin on 09-07-23
-
Tablets Shattered
- The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life
- By: Joshua Leifer
- Narrated by: Eli Schiff
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tablets Shattered is Joshua Leifer’s lively and personal history of the fractured American Jewish present. Formed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the settled-upon pillars of American Jewish self-definition (Americanism, Zionism, and liberalism) have begun to collapse. The binding trauma of Holocaust memory grows ever-more attenuated; soon there will be no living survivors. After two millennia of Jewish life defined by diasporic existence, the majority of the world’s Jews will live in a sovereign Jewish state by 2050.
-
-
Essential read for the foundation of the Jewish future
- By Molly on 09-25-24
By: Joshua Leifer
-
Ain’t No Grave
- By: Mary Glickman
- Narrated by: Alexandra Cohler
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine-year-olds Max Sassaport and Ruby Johnson are best friends who can't imagine a world where they aren't together. Unfortunately, no one-not their families, nor anyone else in rural Georgia in 1906-wants to see a White middle-class Jewish boy get too close to the Black daughter of a sharecropper. It's only a matter of time before fate will separate the two. And that day comes on the eve of Ruby's womanhood, when a violent act sends her running from her home to the life of a child laborer at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta.
-
-
Lovely!
- By Anna on 09-11-24
By: Mary Glickman
-
When We Flew Away
- A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired people for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.
-
-
More Timely Than Ever
- By Lisbeth on 11-09-24
By: Alice Hoffman
-
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew
- By: Emmanuel Acho, Noa Tishby
- Narrated by: Emmanuel Acho, Noa Tishby
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Informative and accessible, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew has a unique structure: Acho asks questions and Tishby answers them with deeply personal, historical, and political responses. This book will enable anyone to explain—and identify—what Jewish hatred looks like. It is a much-needed lexicon for this fraught moment in Jewish history.
-
-
Such an important read today, and always.
- By Anonymous User on 05-05-24
By: Emmanuel Acho, and others
-
The Safekeep
- By: Yael van der Wouden
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
-
-
Beautiful. Unexpected.
- By cm on 01-15-25
-
Don't Forget to Write
- A Novel
- By: Sara Goodman Confino
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye. To Marilyn’s surprise, Ada’s not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She’s sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules…mostly.
-
-
So good!
- By Kristin on 09-07-23
-
Tablets Shattered
- The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life
- By: Joshua Leifer
- Narrated by: Eli Schiff
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tablets Shattered is Joshua Leifer’s lively and personal history of the fractured American Jewish present. Formed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the settled-upon pillars of American Jewish self-definition (Americanism, Zionism, and liberalism) have begun to collapse. The binding trauma of Holocaust memory grows ever-more attenuated; soon there will be no living survivors. After two millennia of Jewish life defined by diasporic existence, the majority of the world’s Jews will live in a sovereign Jewish state by 2050.
-
-
Essential read for the foundation of the Jewish future
- By Molly on 09-25-24
By: Joshua Leifer
Related to this topic
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Stranded
- By: Chris Bruno, David Howard Lee, Shukri R. Abdi
- Narrated by: Taraji P. Henson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Blake Griffin, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Separated by 10 years, 3,000 miles, and the unrelenting stresses of adulthood, best friends Janet and Serena plan a 40th birthday girls’ trip to reconnect. But after a massive crash, they’re the only survivors to wash ashore on an uncharted Caribbean Island. Armed with only the clothes on their backs and zero survival skills, they fight to overcome hunger, thirst, deadly wildlife—and most terrifyingly—decades of accrued resentment. Can they find their way home, or will they kill each other first?
-
-
Get ready to Laugh
- By Lasheree McFarlane on 11-08-24
By: Chris Bruno, and others
-
Mel & Sue: Should Know By Now
- By: Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins
- Narrated by: Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all have things in our life that we should know by now, but don’t. Absences in our knowledge and skillset that are frankly shameful in an adult. Things that would be too embarrassing to ask anyone to explain – except our very best friend. Listen in as Mel and Sue tackle their ignorance head on, asking each other to explain something that they still don’t know - but absolutely, as adults, should - from how to parallel park to fully understanding bread (why has it got all those holes in it? What, honestly, is yeast?).
-
-
Great fun
- By STEPHANIE on 03-29-25
By: Mel Giedroyc, and others
-
The History of Sketch Comedy
- A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor
- By: Keegan-Michael Key, Elle Key
- Narrated by: Keegan-Michael Key
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Authors Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key build on the popularity of their 2022 Webby Award-winning podcast and delve deeper into the world of sketch, helped along with new essays created expressly for the book by comedy greats.
By: Keegan-Michael Key, and others
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Stranded
- By: Chris Bruno, David Howard Lee, Shukri R. Abdi
- Narrated by: Taraji P. Henson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Blake Griffin, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Separated by 10 years, 3,000 miles, and the unrelenting stresses of adulthood, best friends Janet and Serena plan a 40th birthday girls’ trip to reconnect. But after a massive crash, they’re the only survivors to wash ashore on an uncharted Caribbean Island. Armed with only the clothes on their backs and zero survival skills, they fight to overcome hunger, thirst, deadly wildlife—and most terrifyingly—decades of accrued resentment. Can they find their way home, or will they kill each other first?
-
-
Get ready to Laugh
- By Lasheree McFarlane on 11-08-24
By: Chris Bruno, and others
-
Mel & Sue: Should Know By Now
- By: Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins
- Narrated by: Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all have things in our life that we should know by now, but don’t. Absences in our knowledge and skillset that are frankly shameful in an adult. Things that would be too embarrassing to ask anyone to explain – except our very best friend. Listen in as Mel and Sue tackle their ignorance head on, asking each other to explain something that they still don’t know - but absolutely, as adults, should - from how to parallel park to fully understanding bread (why has it got all those holes in it? What, honestly, is yeast?).
-
-
Great fun
- By STEPHANIE on 03-29-25
By: Mel Giedroyc, and others
-
The History of Sketch Comedy
- A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor
- By: Keegan-Michael Key, Elle Key
- Narrated by: Keegan-Michael Key
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Authors Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key build on the popularity of their 2022 Webby Award-winning podcast and delve deeper into the world of sketch, helped along with new essays created expressly for the book by comedy greats.
By: Keegan-Michael Key, and others
What listeners say about Goyhood
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Housemom
- 01-14-25
Brotherly Love
Appreciated the interplay between the brothers and their interplay between the other characters in the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carol Johnson
- 10-30-24
An Epic unexpected journey
I really loved this book! It was pure entertainment for me. Some plot points seemed like a stretch but they made for a fun ride and an unexpected ending. I’m not sure which character most embodies me: Mayer (Marty), David, or Mom. Maybe all three.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- The Been There Done That Mom
- 09-12-24
Very good, nicely tied up story
I just finished listening to "Goyhood," and I really enjoyed it. The writing is well done and the story is compelling. All of the characters are likable and the way Reuven Fenton subtly left information for the reader to interpret was genius. I love it when the author gives the reader credit for being able to understand subtleties.
My only critique is that, while I enjoy the narrator, he should learn to pronounce the Hebrew, Yiddish, and generally Jewish terms better. Some were fine but others left me cringing.
Despite this critique, I strongly recommend it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- B. Schwitzer
- 11-02-24
Good read…awful listen
The actor reading the well written story absolutely butchered all Hebrew and Yiddish phrases - I enjoyed the story but almost couldn’t finish because listening was so difficult
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Larry Skibo
- 09-01-24
The commonality of being Jewish
I liked everything about this story he is a great detailed storyteller and a great writer
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christa
- 03-13-25
Boring, predictable, with terrible storytelling
I don’t understand the acclaim for this book. The writing is stilted, choppy, and dull. The characters are shallow. There are moments where the author clearly wanted to evoke intense emotion, but I did not care enough about the character or the circumstances to oblige. If you’re looking for a book with Jewish themes where a character goes on a journey of self-discovery, read The Golem of Brooklyn instead.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!