Allegra Goodman Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Allegra Goodman
Allegra Goodman (a National Book Award finalist) was born in Brooklyn, yet grew up in Honolulu. She never had to wear shoes in school until the fifth grade. She lived in Hawaii up until she flew back east for college. Now she’s got snow boots since she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She writes short stories and novels, and loves her job.

Along with writing fiction, she also reads quite a lot and teaches sometimes. She reads biography, fiction, poetry, history, and books about art. Allegra also enjoys finding authors in translation. During her free time, she walks around the city and swims.

When she was just 7 years old in Hawaii, she decided she would become a novelist, however she started by writing short stories and poetry. During high school and college she focused on short stories, and in June of 1986, published her first in “Commentary”.

She finds the best thing about being a writer is getting to create new worlds, and live some new lives. A novelist performs every single part, controls the lights, sets the scene, mixes the sound, and conjures all of the costumes. It is pretty amazing to be able to create theater just out of thin air. However she never does it alone. She creates right along with the reader.

“Kaaterskill Falls” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1998. During the summer of ‘76, the Melishes and Shulmans migrate to Kaaterskill, the small town in upstate New York where Yankee year-rounders and Orthodox Jews live side by side from June to August. Elizabeth Shulman, who is a devout follower of Rav Elijah Kirshner and the mom of five daughters, has grown restless. She needs some project of her own, outside her cloistered community and her family.

Across the street, Andras Melish is drawn to Kaaterskill by his adoring older sisters, bound to him by their loss and a wrenching escape from the Holocaust. Being both crippled and comforted by his sisters’ love, he cannot overcome the ambivalence that he feels toward his kids and his own gorgeous wife.

At the top of the hill, Rav Kirshner is coming to the very end of his life, and struggles to figure out which of his sons should succeed him: the pious yet stolid Isaiah, or the worldly yet brilliant Jeremy. Then behind the scenes, alarmed while his beloved Kaaterskill gets overdeveloped by Michael King, who’s the local real estate broker, Judge Miles Taylor keeps one old secret in check, just biding his time.

“Intuition” is a stand alone novel that was released in 2006. This is at once an intricate mystery and a rich human drama set in the high-stakes atmosphere of one prestigious research institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sandy Glass (charismatic publicity seeking oncologist) and Marion Mendelssohn (an exacting and pure scientist) are co-directors of this lab at the Philpott Institute that is dedicated to cancer research and is desperately in need of a grant. Both supervisors and mentors of their young postdoctoral proteges, they demand obedience and dedication in quite the competitive environment where results are elusive and funding is scarce.

So when the experiments of a young postdoc in a rut, named Cliff Bannaker, start working, the whole lab gets giddy with some newfound expectations. However Cliff’s rigorous colleague (and girlfriend) Robin Decker suspects something unthinkable: that his findings are fraudulent. While Robin makes her private doubts public and he maintains his innocence, one life-changing controversy engulfs the entire lab and everybody in it.

Allegra, with extraordinary insight, brilliantly explores the intricate mixture of workplace intrigue, scientific ardor, and moral consequences of a rush to judgment.

“Sam” is a stand alone novel that was released in 2023. What happens to one girl’s sense of belonging and joy, to her belief in herself, while becoming a woman? This is an unforgettable portrait of coming-of-age offering subtle but powerful reflections on parenthood, class, lust, addiction, and the irrepressible power of dreams.

Sam is 7 years old and lives in Beverly, Massachusetts. She adores her dad, although he’s not around much. Her mom struggles to make ends meet, and never fails to keep reminding Sam that if she studies hard and acts responsibly, adulthood will be so much easier, more comfortable and secure. However security and comfort aren’t of much interest to Sam. She does not fit in at school, where all the other girls have got the right shade of blue jeans and they never question the rules. She doesn’t care about rules or jeans. All she wants is to climb. Hanging up from the highest limbs of the tallest of trees, scaling the side of a building is where Sam feels free.

While she’s a teen, she starts doubting herself. She yearns to just be noticed, even while also wanting to vanish. Her climbing coach takes an interest in her, his attention is far more complex than she’d anticipated. She resents her dad’s erratic behavior, however she grieves after he has gone. And she resists her mom’s efforts to plan for her future, even while that future continues getting closer.

“Isola” is a stand alone novel that was released in 2025. One young woman and her lover get marooned on this island in a deeply moving novel about survival, love, and faith.

Back in 16th century France, while being the heiress to this aristocratic fortune, Marguerite is destined to live a life of privilege. Then she gets orphaned, and her enigmatic and volatile guardian squanders her entire inheritance and insists that she go with him on this expedition to the new French colonies of North America. While afraid and isolated, she befriends her guardian’s servant and the two soon develop this intense attraction. However once their relationship gets found out, they’re brutally punished and abandoned on a small island without any hope for rescued.

From a childhood dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, she finds she’s at the mercy of nature. While the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she finds a faith that she never even knew she’d needed.

Inspired by the real life of one 16th century heroine, this book tells the timeless tale about a woman fighting for survival.