THE BROTHERS ASHKENAZI

by I. J. Singer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 1936

A dark horse, yes. A long book, translated from the Yiddish. The earmarks of a book to let the other fellow gamble with, it would seem. If I were in your place, I should deliberately set out to be one of the gamblers, and from much the same point of view that I advised gambling in The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. This book has somewhat the same power, in its unforgettable picture of a race, persecuted, shunned, feared, used, discarded. It is the story of twins, Polish Jews, whose paths are strangely divergent, only to meet and cross and come into conflict at scattered moments of vital import to both. A broad canvas, in time and thought, is here sketched; a small manufacturing town, centering for health, wealth and happiness in the prosperity of a circumscribed number of manufacturing plants, is the background for most of the story, and the focus is largely on the older of the twins, the lesser man, in his struggle to win his place in the sun, by fair means and foul. The period covered goes back, well before the Russo-Japanese War, and forward through the World War, and its aftermath of revolution, race wars, inflation, prosperity, despair. It is a tremendously gripping book, a book which you can help make a success. The publishers have faith in it. They've rescued it from the obscurity of its original language and publication, and are backing it as an important lead item. Go to it!

Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1936

ISBN: 1590512901

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1936

Categories: NONFICTION