The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum (Paperback)

Penny Simpson

ISBN 10: 0955527236 / ISBN 13: 9780955527234

Published by Alcemi, Talybont, 2008

About this Item

Paperback. It is Berlin, 1929. The inflation-hungry city is edging towards disaster, but seven-foot Jewish orphan Esther Rosenbaum is serving up a banquet for friends. They are the bohemians, artists and kabarett composers who have sampled her finest recipes in the legendary Schorns restaurant and long declared her Germany's most celebrated chef. Except it is a life built on quicksand: Schorns' proprietor is owned by a gay black marketeer, Leon Wolf, but patronised by Nazis. The revolutionaries who briefly seized power ten years earlier are distracted by personal feuds and vendettas, manipulated by one Bertolt Brecht. While Esther, once a towering presence clad in her peacock tapestry skirts, has started to dress as a man to blend into Berlin's vicious night streets.The cook capable of creating delicacies such as chocolate hearts stuffed with saffron pen nibs has stopped eating and is reducing herself to bone. Using a burlesque brand of magic realism, Penny Simpson conjures up fantastical elements to show how cookery can be an act of storytelling, and imagination itself an act of subversion and survival. The interwar cabaret scene in Munich and Berlin, seen through the eyes of a seven foot Jewish giantess. The tapestry of Jewish culture, evoked through food, theatre, clothes and custom, at the point at which it is about to unravel. This retro epic evokes Angela Carter's brand of burlesque magic realism. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780955527234

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum (Paperback)
• Publisher: Alcemi, Talybont
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0955527236
• ISBN 13: 9780955527234
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Berlin, 1929. The inflation-hungry city is edging towards disaster, but seven-foot, Jewish orphan Esther Rosenbaum is serving up chocolate hearts stuffed with saffron pen nibs. The bohemians, artists and cabaret composers who sample her finest recipes in the legendary Schorns restaurant, have declared her Germany's most celebrated chef. Yet it is a life built on quicksand: Schorns is owned by a gay black marketeer Leon Wolf - but patronized by Nazis. Now Esther, once a towering presence clad in her peacock tapestry skirts, has stopped eating and is reducing herself to bone, dressing as a man to blend into Berlin's vicious night streets. Using a burlesque brand of magic realism, Penny Simpson conjures fantastical elements to show how cookery can be an act of storytelling, and imagination itself an act of subversion and survival. "An intriguing first novel."--Booklist. "Moving and inspiring."--Midwest Book Review. "A feast of language... served on a platter embellished with similes and metaphors so strong that their aromas permeate the text with every page."--Jewish Book World.

About the Author

Penny Simpson is Head of Press at Welsh National Opera, coming full circle after a series of cleaning and receptionist's jobs at Glyndebourne Opera House, which helped support her at art college (and subsidised a taste in designer shoes). She trained as a journalist, specialising in the arts, before winning Barclays/TMA Theatre Critic of the Year in 1991. Her assignments took her to a post-war Croatian island beach to review The Tempest, and to Nikko, Japan, where she hung out with yabusame horseback archers. She is the 2007 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition winner. A playwright and author of short fiction which has appeared in anthologies from Bloomsbury, Honno and Virago, her debut collection of short fiction DOGdays was published in 2003. This is her first novel.