A Castle in Brooklyn
Spanning decades, an unforgettable novel about reckoning with the past, the true nature of friendship, and the dream of finding home.
1944, Poland. Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as boys under terrifying circumstances. They survive by miraculously escaping, but their shared past haunts and shapes their lives forever.
Years later, Zalman plows a future on a Minnesota farm. In Brooklyn, Jacob has a new life with his wife, Esther. When Zalman travels to New York City to reconnect, Jacob's hopes for the future are becoming a reality. With Zalman's help, they build a house for Jacob's family and for Zalman, who decides to stay. Modest and light filled, inviting and warm with acceptance--for all of them, it's a castle to call home.
Then an unforeseeable tragedy--and the grief, betrayals, and revelations in its wake--threatens to destroy what was once an unbreakable bond, and Esther finds herself at a crossroads. A Castle in Brooklyn is a moving and heartfelt immigration story about finding love and building a home and family while being haunted by a traumatic past.
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Shirley Russak Wachtel is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to two precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur. For more information visit www.shirleywachtel.com.
"This is a story about immigration, adaptation to new cultures, and...a chance to grapple with the traditional roles that women play...A solid choice for book clubs." --Library Journal
"Wachtel [shows] how surviving the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland...doesn't guarantee a 'happily ever after' in America but may become a source of pride, strength, and reconciliation for the next generation." --Historical Novels Review
"A Castle in Brooklyn is a story about love and endurance. It follows Jacob and Zalman as they survive 1944 Poland and make their way to America, to a dreamlike life that is shattered too soon. With deep empathy, Wachtel lays bare an incredible resilience and desire to live that will inspire readers and keep them turning the page. Magnificent." --Rachel Barenbaum, author of A Bend in the Stars and Atomic Anna
"An enchanting, lively, and heartbreaking novel--all at once--A Castle in Brooklyn evokes such a tantalizing yet improbable image, especially for Holocaust survivors. Survival rendered them royalty, but could a fortress keep them safe from memories and destinies that could cross any moat? Wachtel delivers a most worthy debut." --Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible
