The Promise (1969) is Potok's sequel to The Chosen. In this book, Reuven prepares to become a rabbi but runs into an obstacle in the form of apostate scholar Abraham Gordon; at the same time, Danny, now a psychologist, treats Gordon's disturbed son.

Fathers (1966) by Herbert Gold also concerns the relationship between a son and a father. Gold presents an irreligious father who is a shopkeeper and a son who feels he can cross the abyss between them in spite of their generational differences.

Call It Sleep (1934) by Henry Roth. Considered an American classic, this novel depicts the relationship between a young boy and the father who terrifies him. While Gold depicts an affectionate father, the father in Roth's novel has an openly hostile relationship with his son. The story is set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the...