Praise for The Evil Inclination
“The Evil Inclination tells the story of Lev Livitski, an Orthodox Jewish boy from Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood, who embarks on a secret, passionate and lust-filled affair with Angela Pizatto, a sharp-tongued Italian beauty from Bensonhurst. The novel is gripping from the start and grows more compelling as Lev and Angela struggle to understand the profoundly different universes they originate from. Don’t be fooled by first impressions—Angela is not what she seems, and as Lev learns who she truly is, he discovers with some shock who he is, as well. The Evil Inclination tells an exhilarating, spellbinding tale, and if you are at all like me, the unanticipated but well-crafted ending will surprise, astonish and move you deeply. This might well be the most compelling novel I have read in the past decade, and with The Evil Inclination, an extraordinary talent has entered the world of fiction.”
— Joseph Telushkin, best selling author of seventeen books, including Words that Hurt Words that Heal and Jewish Literacy.
“Daniel Victor's novel The Evil Inclination is a captivating love story pitting passion against faith. Set in Brooklyn in the early years of the twenty-first century, the novel tells the story of Lev Livitski, who, testing the limits of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing, meets Angela Pizatto, a capricious Catholic beauty. Their affair threatens to derail their lives even as it challenges their assumptions--and ours. Daniel Victor’s novel is an irresistible read, as well as, along the way, a tender tribute to the vanishing ethnic enclaves of Brooklyn.”
— Judith Shulevitz, journalist and culture critic; author of the of the best-selling book, The Sabbath World; columnist for Slate, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic and The Atlantic.
“The Evil Inclination is a wondrous and welcome literary debut by a writer of uncommon gifts. Daniel Victor treats us to everything from sacred texts to sordid sex. Remarkably, it all beautifully blends together into a riveting—and surprising—book about family, faith, lust, heresy, temptation, wisdom and God. I loved this book! Like all good ones, it took me to places I’ve never been.”
— Ari Goldman, Professor of Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism; best-selling author of The Search for God at Harvard; regulator contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, The New York Jewish Week, and The Forward.