<b>A coming-of-age classic about two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, this ';profound and universal' (</b><b><i>The Wall Street Journal</i></b><b>) story of faith, family, tradition, and assimilation remains deeply pertinent today.</b><BR><BR><b>';Works of this caliber should be occasion for singing in the streets and shouting from the rooftops.' <i>Chicago Tribune</i></b><BR><BR>It's the spring of 1944 and fifteen-year-olds Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders have lived five blocks apart all their lives. But they've never met, not until the day an accident at a softball game sparks an unlikely friendship. Soon these two boysone expected to become a Hasidic rebbe, the other at ease with secular Americaare drawn into one another's worlds despite a father's strong opposition.<BR><BR>Set against the backdrop of World War II and the creation of the state of Israel, <i>The Chosen</i> is a poignant novel about transformation and tradition, growing up and growing wise, and findin