''Study for Obedience'' is a 2023 novel by Canadian author Sarah Bernstein, published by Knopf Canada, a subsidiary of

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

. The novel tells of an unnamed narrator who moves to a secluded area of an unnamed northern country to care for her older brother. The narrator soon realizes that the townspeople revile her, an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

for

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. The novel was shortlisted for the

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Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

,Ella Creamer
"Just one British writer makes the Booker prize shortlist"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', September 21, 2023. and was the winner of the 2023

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried co ...

. The novel was published in French by Éditions Alto in a translation by Catherine Leroux in 2024.https://editionsalto.com/livres/etude_pour_lobeissance/

Narrative

The unnamed narrator moves to a remote part of an unnamed northern country to become her brother's caretaker after his divorce. A series of unexplained and bizarre events occur in the town shortly after her arrival, including a dog's "phantom pregnancy", a sow crushing her own piglets, a potato

blight Blight is a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. Description Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. A ...

, and cattle becoming demented. She soon realizes that the townspeople blame her for these events. The townspeople revile and often fear her. They are seen crossing themselves at times when interacting with her, covering their children's eyes, and huddling behind counters at her presence. The narrator explains that she and her brother belonged to "an obscure though reviled people who had been dogged across borders and put into pits."

Reception

In a negative review in ''

'', literary critic Chris Power criticized the novel's abstract plot and lack of detail as being inadequate to portray the immigrant or the Jewish experience. He states: "The nature of her crisis, withheld like so much else, is revealed as a generational form of survivor’s guilt, but its rapid resolution, and the vagueness of her engagement with its root cause, makes for an oddly frictionless, even privileged, journey into trauma." Also writing for ''The Guardian'', Miriam Balanescu states that "The narrator's encounters with modern-day antisemitism are captured acutely and absurdly." Balanescu concluded that "This masterly follow-up to her debut acts as a meditation on survival, the dangers of absorbing the narratives of the powerful, and a warning that the self-blame of the oppressed often comes back to bite." The

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

stated that the novel is "a finely tuned, unsettling novel that confirms Bernstein as one of the most exciting voices of her generation."

References

{{Giller Prize 2023 Canadian novels Books about antisemitism Knopf Canada books Giller Prize–winning works