Abomination


 Contents
 
 Cover
 About the Book
 Title Page
 Contents
 Dedication
 Epigraph
 Chapter 1: Ezra
 Chapter 2: Yonatan
 Chapter 3: Ezra
 Chapter 4: Yonatan
 Chapter 5: Ezra
 Chapter 6: Yonatan
 Chapter 7: Ezra
 Chapter 8: Yonatan
 Chapter 9: Ezra
 Chapter 10: Yonatan
 Chapter 11: Ezra
 Chapter 12: Yonatan
 Chapter 13: Ezra
 Chapter 14: Yonatan
 Chapter 15: Ezra
 Chapter 16: Yonatan
 Chapter 17: Ezra
 Chapter 18: Yonatan
 Chapter 19: Ezra
 Chapter 20: Yonatan
 Chapter 21: Ezra
 Chapter 22: Yonatan
 Chapter 23: Ezra
 Acknowledgements
 About the Author
 Imprint
 Read More at Penguin Books Australia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 About the Book
 
 
 ‘He who turns his ear away from hearing the Torah – even his prayer is an abomination.’ Proverbs 28:9
 
 Melbourne 1999: Ezra and Yonatan are best friends whose lives are forever changed when their school, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Yahel Academy, is rocked by a scandal and they are thrown onto divergent paths. Twenty years later, the lives of the two men are very different: Ezra identifies as secular and atheist, while Yonatan has been ordained as a rabbi and teaches at the academy. By chance they are reunited, and the events of their past and present collide with devastating consequences.
 
 Abomination lays bare the clash between religious and secular worlds in contemporary Australia and provides a revealing glimpse into a closed community. With great tenderness and insight, debut author Ashley Goldberg tells the story of an enduring and evolving friendship as Yonatan and Ezra struggle to come to terms with the choices they have made, search for meaning, and forge their own identities. This is a beautifully observed, moving story from an exciting young writer.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 
 
 About the Book
 
 
 Title Page
 
 
 Dedication
 
 
 Epigraph
 
 
 Chapter 1: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 2: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 3: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 4: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 5: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 6: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 7: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 8: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 9: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 10: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 11: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 12: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 13: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 14: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 15: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 16: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 17: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 18: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 19: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 20: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 21: Ezra
 
 
 Chapter 22: Yonatan
 
 
 Chapter 23: Ezra
 
 
 Acknowledgements
 
 
 About the Author
 
 
 Imprint
 
 
 Read More at Penguin Books Australia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For Vlad
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘He who turns his ear away from hearing the Torah – even his prayer is an abomination.’
 – Proverbs 28:9
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 Ezra
 
 
 Good Pho You, that’s where Tegan told Ezra to meet her.
 She was on her way after having visited her parents in Eltham. Her message read: Kitsch decor, line out the door, best pho in town xx.
 Ezra turned onto Swanston Street, on his way to Chinatown. It was nearly eight o’clock and the sun was a dull glow on the edge of the horizon. His pace was slow, steps languid. He’d left their Carlton apartment twenty minutes earlier than he’d needed to, but he was too anxious to keep lying there in the dark, wishing he was someone else. There was a dull ache at the back of his head, and his stomach swam with nausea.
 As he passed the entrance to Melbourne University and the modernist building he’d once had lectures in, two girls in denim shorts and tube tops overtook him. His gaze flicked to their naked shoulders, the bronze skin below their frayed cuffs. He shook his head and cursed himself. Why didn’t he have a modicum of self-control?
 
 He thought about the night before. Strobe lights and music loud enough to goosebump skin – Nineties Night.
 He’d had three pints at Garden State after work with Baz and the grad, Danny. Then Baz’s elderly mother was calling him, and Danny said he had mates to meet in Fitzroy – invited Ezra along, but he knew the kid was only being polite.
 Walking to the tram, Ezra had seen the queue down Meyers Place and the posters outside a newsagent – pastel pinks, yellows and blues like a Fresh Prince tracksuit, white bubble writing around a cassette tape and a list of artists – Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Blink-182, Green Day, Boyzone, Spice Girls, New Kids on the Block, S Club 7. He checked his phone, nothing from Tegan yet. The queue was mostly men, all with short hair, in too-tight, coloured shirts with their sleeves rolled up to the elbow. But dotted throughout the line were a couple of girls in high heels, wearing short dresses and sparkly, low-cut tops stuck to their breasts by what Ezra imagined was double-sided tape. He still felt good and light from the beer, and it seemed a shame to turn in early on that feeling, so he doubled back on the line. A short brunette in a black and white striped dress smiled at him as he walked past, and that was all the encouragement he needed.
 He didn’t catch her name – Mary, Madeleine, Maxine. His throat hurt from shouting. What had they spoken about? What had he told her? It didn’t matter, she was faceless now, but the warmth of her lower back still tingled on his fingertips. He remembered feeling as though he was falling into the curve of her neck, blissfully tumbling into darkness. He could’ve stayed there forever, but then a sudden and distinct sadness was on him and his chest was concrete. It took everything he had not to drop to the