King of the Jews - Hardcover

Epstein, Leslie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0698109554 ISBN 13: 9780698109551

Publisher: Putnam Pub Group, 1978

Synopsis

The King of the Jews is I.C. Trumpelman, the member of the Judenrat responsible for drawing up the death camp lists, a power he uses to establish his own authoritarian regime

About this title

From the Author:

King of the Jews after twenty years
This book was enormously controversial when it first appeared in 1979, even though it was one of only three novels on the NY Times best books of that year and was nominated for the Book Critics Circle Award. What disturbed people, I believe, was its tone--twenty years ago one did not use humor when dealing with the Holocaust--and its reliance upon Hannah Arendt as it examined the ethical dilemmas faced by Jewish leaders caught in the grip of the Germans. After all, the novel is based on a real man, Chaim Rumkowski (a fantastic figure who put his portrait on ghetto currency and ghetto stamps and who kept his people alive longer than any other Jewish Elder, even as he sent them to their deaths), who enjoyed the power he exercised over his subjects. I think time has established this book as a classic of Holocaust literature. It has never been out of print, has been translated into nine languages, and is taught in universities throughout the world. "This is the best novel yet written about the Holocaust," wrote Terrence Des Pres. "It is the only novel of its kind to survive the horror it confronts and emerge undamaged as a truly superior work of art."

About the Author:

Leslie Epstein
Leslie Epstein, whose father and uncle, Philip G. and Julius J. Epstein, wrote Arsenic and Old Lace, Casablanca, and many other classics of the golden era of films, is the author of nine previous books of fiction, including King of the Jews and San Remo Drive, both published by Handsel Books/Other Press. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, where for many years he has directed the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Pub Group
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0698109554
• ISBN 13: 9780698109551
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 350