1940 - Softcover

Neugeboren, Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976389568 ISBN 13: 9780976389569

Publisher: Two Dollar Radio, 2008

Synopsis

"Jay Neugeboren traverses the Hitlerian tightrope with all the skill and formal daring that have made him one of the most honored writers of literary fiction and masterful nonfiction. This new book is, at once, a beautifully realized work of imagined history, a rich and varied character study and a subtly layered novel of ideas, all wrapped in a propulsively readable story. Neugeboren is marvelous. Part of the power of this intelligently and finely wrought novel is that... thoughts and questions arise unforced from the story, as though from life itself." —Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"Intelligent and absorbing... subtle and affecting." —Tova Reich, Washington Post

On the eve of World War II, Elisabeth Rofman returns to New York to discover her father has disappeared. She befriends Dr. Bloch—a fascinating historical figure, physician to the Hitler family when Hitler was young, and the only Jew for whom Hitler arranged departure from Europe. Dr. Bloch aids in the search, also hiding Elisabeth’s son, who has escaped from a Maryland institution.

Jay Neugeboren is the award-winning author of fourteen books.

About this title

About the Author

Jay Neugeboren is the author of fourteen books, including two prize-winning novels (The Stolen Jew, Before My Life Began), two award-winning books of non-fiction (Imagining Robert, Transforming Madness), and three collections of award-winning stories. He has won many honors, and is the only writer to have won six consecutive Syndicated Fiction Prizes.

From Publishers Weekly

Neugeboren's (The Stolen Jew) first novel in 20 years presents a fictional account of an obscure historical figure in this intelligent, densely layered novel. Dr. Eduard Bloch, an Austrian doctor who achieved notoriety for being Adolf Hitler's childhood physician, accepts favors granted to no other Jew and finds himself at the beginning of WWII living out his twilight years in the Bronx. Inspired by a visit from the striking Elisabeth Rofman, an inquisitive medical illustrator, Dr. Bloch decides to write his recollections of the Hitler family. He soon finds himself in the middle of a spat between Elisabeth and her pompous ex-husband over the proposed castration of Daniel, their institutionalized mentally ill son. In the midst of this dispute, Elisabeth's father disappears, and Daniel arrives at Dr. Bloch's apartment, seeking shelter. Through Dr. Bloch's diary entries, he charts the inevitable convergence of his romance with an increasingly unhinged Elisabeth, the unstable yearnings of Daniel and his own surreal remembrances of the teenage Hitler. Neugeboren's characters are nuanced and complex, especially the strong-willed Elisabeth. There are no shocking revelations, but the great characters and the author's thoughtful examination of good and evil pack a cerebral punch. (Apr.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Two Dollar Radio
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0976389568
• ISBN 13: 9780976389569
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 274