The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum

Penny Simpson

ISBN 10: 0955527236 / ISBN 13: 9780955527234

Published by Alcemi, GB, 2008

Seller Inventory # LU-9780955527234

Synopsis:

Berlin, 1929. The inflation-hungry city is edging towards disaster, but seven-foot, Jewish orphan Esther Rosenbaum is serving up chocolate hearts stuffed with saffron pen nibs. The bohemians, artists and cabaret composers who sample her finest recipes in the legendary Schorns restaurant, have declared her Germany's most celebrated chef. Yet it is a life built on quicksand: Schorns is owned by a gay black marketeer Leon Wolf - but patronized by Nazis. Now Esther, once a towering presence clad in her peacock tapestry skirts, has stopped eating and is reducing herself to bone, dressing as a man to blend into Berlin's vicious night streets. Using a burlesque brand of magic realism, Penny Simpson conjures fantastical elements to show how cookery can be an act of storytelling, and imagination itself an act of subversion and survival. "An intriguing first novel."--Booklist. "Moving and inspiring."--Midwest Book Review. "A feast of language... served on a platter embellished with similes and metaphors so strong that their aromas permeate the text with every page."--Jewish Book World.

About the Author: Penny Simpson trained as a journalist, before winning Barclays/TMA Theatre Critic of the Year in 1991. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies from Bloomsbury, Honno and Virago; DOGdays, her debut collection, was published in 2003. This is her first novel. She now works as Head of Press at Welsh National Opera.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum
Publisher: Alcemi, GB
Publication Date: 2008
Binding: Paperback
Condition: New