Alan Fleishman
These four novels together chronicle the Twentieth Century Jewish journey, from persecution to tragedy to triumph.
GOLIATH'S HEAD
When the story begins,Russia stands on the eve of early-twentieth-century revolution. Avi Schneider, is only nine years old when he first meets his own personal devil, Viktor Askinov, a brutal youngster who relishes tormenting Jewish boys. In the years that follow, Avi is the object of his tormentor's obsession. The story reaches a climax fourteen years later in 1905 when the Tsar instigates riots - pogroms - against the poor, teeming Jewish villages. Now a husband and father, Avi takes to the barricades to defend his village from the mob coming to kill the men, rape the women, and burn his village to the ground. Armed, he again faces Viktor Askinov, who is leading the mob.
A FINE SEPTEMBER MORNING
This sequel to Goliath's Head begins during Russia’s bloody 1905 anti-Jewish riots. Young Avi Schneider shoots a man, flees to America and, with his wife Sara, lives the Jewish immigrant's dream. But his brother Lieb stubbornly refuses to abandon his home. In ensuing years, Lieb lives Russia’s nightmare of war, revolution, and famine. Then on the eve of World War II, Stalin’s pathological purges finally ensnare Lieb’s family. At last, he realizes he must escape, 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.
LARA'S SHADOW
Eli Schneider hates Germans as hard as anyone can hate, and for good reason. Then he falls in
love with one of them. Lara's Shadow is told against the backdrop of post-World War II Germany and the tensest moments of the Cold War. Eli is a young lieutenant in the U.S. Army, a Jew expected to defend the perpetrators of the Holocaust. When he meets fraulein Lara Kohler, he initially pursues her just for sex, but it's her quirky personality and fascinating mind that ensnare him. But in a country filled with former Nazis, there are bound to be secrets. He uncovers one layer of Lara's secrets after another until he must ask how much he can be expected to forgive. And how much responsibility she must carry for others' sins?
ODYSSEY OF CHAOS
With the Gestapo pounding on every door, no Jew in Athens is safe. Theo Kantos, a dress shop owner, has a desperate choice to make if he is to save his family. Does he trust the most despicable man he knows to hide them? Or does he place his life and the lives of those he loves in the hands of a communist? And what does he do about his obstinate brother who always has to have the last word? Nearly ninety percent of Greece's Jews perished in the Holocaust, the highest percentage of Jews lost in any country. This novella, Odyssey of Chaos, was inspired by the true story of the author’s Greek cousins who survived hidden in a cellar by a shepherd, aided by their Christian friends. Six contemporary short stories follow the title novella.
Copyright 2020 Alan Fleishman. All rights reserved.
Photos used under license from Shutterstock