Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and South America, the stories in TO BE A MAN feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.

In the wake of his parents’ deaths, his divorce from his wife of more than 30 years, and his retirement from the New York legal firm where he was a partner, Jules Epstein has felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions. With the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi planning a reunion for the descendants of King David, who insists that Epstein is part of that storied dynastic line. He also meets the rabbi’s beautiful daughter, who convinces Epstein to become involved in her own project --- a film about the life of David being shot in the desert --- with life-changing consequences.