The Book of Daniel

Content Warning: This section contains discussions of suicidal ideation, a suicide attempt, and incestuous fantasies.

Daniel Lewin is the narrator and protagonist of The Book of Daniel. As well as being Daniel Lewin, Daniel is also Daniel Isaacson, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, communist activists who were executed for treason. Daniel is an academic writing a dissertation on the left-wing movement his parents were a part of. Reflecting Daniel’s split identities—Daniel Isaacson, the boy who witnessed his parents’ arrests and executions; and Daniel Lewin, the academic researching them—the narrative is split between first- and the third-person point of view. Daniel refers to himself throughout as both “I” and “Daniel,” often switching in successive paragraphs. The source of the split in Daniel’s identities is the Ideological Tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that manifested, tragically, in his parents’ persecution and deaths. The narrative represents Daniel’s attempt to understand himself amid all these personal and geopolitical complexities. This division within Daniel drives the plot of The Book of Daniel. Rather than piecing together the story of his parents, he is piecing together the story of how his own identity came to be so fractured.