Before World War II, and for a generation of Yiddish speakers, Israel Joshua Singer was the Singer: I. Singer came to the United States in 1934, and within two years The Brothers Ashkenazi was published, a work that was not only an instant success but was also destined to become a classic in its time. IJ Singer is nothing less than a genius who can capture the sweep of history and simultaneously portray characters that ring true. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.

An earlier article, “ The Family Singer and the Autobiographical Imagination,” was published in Prooftexts in 1990. This is historical fiction at its best, and it's so obvious that whatever the author described, for the most part, he had seen and witnessed with his own eyes, or heard about in detail.

New and familiar characters abound, voiced by a bright mix of performers, including Kat Dennings, Regé-Jean Page, Emma Corrin, Michael Sheen, Kristen Schaal, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Wright, and so many more, including fan-favorite narrators Simon Vance and Ray Porter.

In the first, Louis Kronenberger describes the book as “a very powerful story…seized upon by a very powerful story-teller. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force tactical air controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events. Irving Howe states in the novel’s introduction that the story follows the “curve of the social novel,” something he compares to Great Expectations.