The Chosen / Chaim Potok. -- 1968

Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen is the story of the friendship between the Hasidic Jew Danny Saunders and the more liberal Jewish teenager Reuven Malter in Brooklyn at the end of World War II. At the beginning of the novel, both are fifteen years old and live near one another, although because they go to separate yeshivas (parochial schools) they have never met. The two meet during a softball game between their two schools, in which Danny confronts Reuven and calls him an apikoros (a Jew who denies the basic tenets of his faith) as Danny is on second base. During the baseball game, Reuven pitches to Danny, who hits the ball back at him, hitting him in the eye and shattering his glasses. Mr. Galanter, Reuven's baseball coach, takes him to Brooklyn Memorial hospital, where he must stay for a week while his eye heals. He stays in the hospital ward with Tony Savo, a professional prizefighter, a young blond boy named Billy, and a small child named Mickey. When Reuven's father, David Malter, arrives, Reuven tells him how Danny intended to hit him and called him an apikoros. However, Danny later visits the hospital; Reuven is bitter and confrontational, and they argue once more, but Danny visits a second time and confesses that he had to win the ball game because of his father. The two begin to discuss the Talmud, and Danny admits that he wants to be a psychologist. They two soon become friends. sound interesting? all and more in the book.