The Credit Draper

'An odyssey of cultural confusion and survival. Full of hope, honour and sadness' (McKitterick Prize judges). 1911. Young Avram Escovitz is shipped off to Scotland to escape conscription into the Russian army. Living in the heart of Glasgow's tight-knit Jewish community, he dreams of playing for Celtic FC until World War I intervenes and he is sent to work as a credit draper, peddling goods on credit to the crofters and villagers of the Western Highlands. A stranger in a strange land, Avram is faced with the challenges of setting up a new business and capturing the heart of a Highland lass. But how easy will it be to shake off his Jewish roots? The award-winning The Credit Draper is the first book in J. David Simons' magnum opus, a loose trilogy following his interconnected cast of characters from Glasgow to Galilee. The story continues with The Liberation of Celia Kahn and is concluded in the finale, The Land Agent, published in October 2014. Touching on issues of identity, displacement, community, feminism, alcoholism, socialism and idealism, the novels provide a valuable literary record of the Jewish community.

J. David Simons is Scotland's pre-eminent Jewish writer. He lived on a kibbutz in Israel in the '70s and is the author of four novels, short stories and essays. The Credit Draper was shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize and he has received bursaries and writing fellowships from three prestigious organisations. His acclaimed novel An Exquisite Sense of What Is Beautiful was published by Saraband in 2013.