Conspirators: A Novel - Hardcover

Bernstein, Michael Andre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374237549 ISBN 13: 9780374237547

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004

Synopsis

Galicia, Austria-Hungary, 1913. In the castle of a frontier town, on the border between Europe and the East, the worldly, corrupt Count-Governor Wiladowski watches helplessly while a wave of assassinations sweeps the empire, and his province. When a member of his own family is murdered, the count gives broad police powers to his spymaster, Jakob Tausk: a brilliant young Jew whose ruthless war on terror extends into every corner of the province and beyond, enlisting union organizers, financiers, aristocrats and their servants, and a young novelist and playwright, newly arrived in the Vienna of Franz Josef and Freud, hungry for literary success.

In the wake of new terrorist attacks, a mysterious preacher appears in the provincial capital--one of the so-called "wonder rabbis" from the shtetls of the East-trailing a band of fanatical disciples who proclaim him the messiah. Word of the charismatic leader spreads quickly from the Jewish quarter to the castle itself, and soon Tausk finds himself serving two masters: the count and the richest man in the province, Moritz Rotenburg, who has a private interest in the wonder rabbi and whose only son has returned from university, burning for revolution, to gather disciples of his own.

Moving from underground meetings and makeshift synagogues to the bedrooms of country estates and the secret high councils of the ailing thousand-year-old Habsburg Empire, Michael André Bernstein's compelling first novel evokes a densely believable world on the edge of collapse, full of the haunting suggestiveness of a fable or nightmare, and the erotic, mystical, and apocalyptic passions of an age.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Beautifully written, intricate and entrancing."--Jaroslaw Anders, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Galicia, Austria-Hungary, 1913. In the castle of a frontier town, on the border between Europe and the East, the corrupt Count-Governor Wiladowski watches helplessly while a wave of assassinations sweeps the empire, and his province. When a member of his own family is murdered, the count gives broad police powers to his spymaster, Jakob Tausk: a brilliant young Jew whose ruthless war on terror extends into every corner of the province and beyond, enlisting union organizers, financiers, aristocrats and their servants, and a young novelist and playwright, newly arrived in the Vienna of Franz Josef and Freud, hungry for literary success.

"Bernstein creates a vivid cast of characters and does a superb job of evoking the feverish intellectual atmosphere of Middle Europe.... A pleasure to read." --Jamie James, The Wall Street Journal

"Bernstein gets it all right. Conspirators emotionally compelling and intellectually exhilarating, splendidly re-creates a forgotten world."--Dan Cryer, Newsday

"Grandly old-fashioned...Bernstein maintains firm control of his plot, and painstakingly re-creates the historical landscape."--The New Yorker

Michael André Bernstein is a frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The New Republic. He is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley.

About the Author

Michael André Bernstein was raised and educated in Europe, Canada, and the United States. He is a frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The New Republic.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0374237549
• ISBN 13: 9780374237547
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512