"In a first novel of unusual grace and resonance, Henkin achieves a voice at once sweet and tormented. Swimming Across the Hudson raises deep and fundamental questions--such as, what is the meaning of family after all?--that linger long after the last page."
Thomas Fields-Meyer, People

"Lofted by a ranging imagination and dead-eye candor, Swimming Across the Hudson is buoyant and bounding."
The Village Voice

"In its attention to various forms of conversion and transformation, Swimming across the Hudson is consistently moving and wonderfully accomplished."
--Charles Baxter

"Graceful and engaging. . . Henkin explores the defining questions of early adulthood with intelligence, good humor, and a wonderful economy."
--Andrea Barrett

"The plot twists that give the story its momentum are so delicately and deftly constructed that I hesitate to summarize anything--every reader should be allowed the gentle and moving surprises that make this novel so memorable. Perhaps it is enough to say that Ben Suskind, Henkin's troubled but ultimately wiser protagonist, is one of the most winning characters I've come across in contemporary fiction.... It would be very incomplete to think of Swimming Across the Hudson only as a Jewish coming-of-age novel. The obsession with identity--personal and cultural--lifts Henkin's book into a category by itself."
Keith Taylor, Ann Arbor Observer

"It's a relief to find a novel by someone younger than 40 that doesn't opt for the soulless ironies of Postmodernism because it fears sentimentality. While the comic potential of a Jewish man meeting his ultra-shiksa [birth] mother might have seemed tempting to exploit, Henkin never plays for easy laughs. Instead, his subdued sense of humor permeates the novel, leavening the seriousness of his subject.... Swimming Across the Hudson suggests Henkin has what we might call good literary capital. He has an inherently interesting story to tell and ample resources with which to examine it."
Charles Wasserburg, Chicago Tribune

"Swimming Across the Hudson is beautifully written, compelling readable, intriguingly challenging. We all will not soon forget Ben Suskind and will lovingly remember his creator, Joshua Henkin, because his first novel is a gem."
D.H.R., Rapport--West Coast Review of Books

"A tender, thoughtful first novel.... Henkin fashions an affecting tale of family roots and personal identity."
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

"In every generation, some decent talent slips through. On the strength of Swimming Across the Hudson, Joshua Henkin could be the one."
Jesse Kornbluth, The Book Report

"Henkin writes of familial relationships without cynicism or anger and with wry wisdom, love, and compassion."
Laura Berman, Detroit News

"Henkin's novel is a real, deep charmer."
Ray Olson, Booklist

"Joshua Henkin is a very gifted writer, and Swimming Across the Hudson is told with great narrative skill, in fluid and graceful prose. His honest and compassionate explorations of the complicated tangle of love and guilt, truth and lies that are at the heart of all families have the ring of emotional truth. Swimming Across the Hudson is a novel that resonates in the reader's heart and mind long after the final page is turned."
Tom Fagan, Lambda Book Report

"Henkin writes with grace and wit."
Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week

"Henkin has the felicitous gift of being able to tell a story clearly, compellingly, unobtrusively, and with a gentle sense of wry humor and irony. He is superb at creating specific sequences, vignettes really.... Henkin artlessly and beautifully portrays an achingly difficult and awkward moment that resonates with truth."
Benjamin Nelson, Jewish Book World

"A page-turner full of authentic characters, pressing social issues, and dynamic conflict.... How powerful are our values, [Henkin] seems to ask. What boundaries will we cross or uphold in order to maintain our own integrity?... Fear and revelation lie at the heart of this novel, as do courage and the hope of redemption. It's to Joshua Henkin's credit that he can elicit all these emotions with equal force. Swimming Across the Hudson is a fine start to what will no doubt be an exciting career."
John Lofy, Midstream

"A quietly affecting debut novel.... [An] engrossing story.
Michael Lowenthal, Out

"Although it raises philosophical issues, Swimming Across the Hudson stays afloat because, ultimately, it is a compellingly told story with strong characters, rapid pacing and painfully real scenes.... Ben's recollections of his childhood are peppered with wonderfully astute descriptions and quirky details.... A compelling novel, Swimming Across the Hudson marks the debut of a promising new writer."
Julie Wiener, Detroit Jewish News