A Fine September Morning tells a gripping tale of hate, hope, and love entwined with one man’s determination to rescue his brother.

During Russia’s bloody 1905 anti- Jewish riots, young Avi Schneider shoots the leader of the attacking gentile mob, stopping the killings and the burning of his village.  But in the aftermath, Avi is forced to flee to America.  His darling wife Sara and the rest of his family soon follow, all except his brother Lieb, who stub- bornly refuses to abandon his home.  In ensuing years, while Avi lives the American immigrant’s dream, Lieb lives Russia’s nightmare: World War I, the Communist revolution, civil war, typhus, and famine.  Still Lieb rejects Avi’s pleas to leave Russia. 

Then on the eve of World War II, Stalin’s pathological purges finally ensnare Lieb’s family.  At last he realizes he must escape the Communist nightmare, but now all avenues are blocked, and Hitler’s armies are gathering.  He turns to Avi, his brother in America, who frantically tries to rescue Lieb and his family with little more to work with than his own wit. 

 Stretching from pre-Revolution Russia to post-Holocaust America, A Fine September Morning blends historical facts and fictional characters.  It continues the epic family saga begun in Fleishman’s successful debut novel, Goliath’s Head.

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“Fleishman writes with  confidence and skill, often understating and under-writing events so as to allow the reader to use imagination … surely the mark of a great writer.”

- Tony Bayliss -
   author of Future Perfect