My Name Is Asher Lev My Name is Asher Lev by: Chaim Potok Synopsis: In this major novel--a wholly new departure for the author of The chosen and The Promise--the reader becomes a galvanized witness to the development of genius, as Chaim Potok traces the making of a great contemporary painter from the time when an "ordinary" little Brooklyn boy responds to the first stirrings of a commanding talent to the triumphant exhibition that wins …showed first 75 words of 411 total…

…showed last 75 words of 411 total…fears but which his art needs to nourish it. Here in a context of tension--commitment colliding with commitment--is Asher's education in art and life, and the flowering of his consuming talent. This is how genius grows, not only from inner demands but from the very ancestral heritage whose civilities and laws and relationships the artist must revolt against. Chaim Potok's new novel astonishes both by its emotional comprehension of the artist and its dramatic force.