|
1940
A new novel by Jay Neugeboren
April 2008
Jay Neugeboren is the author of fourteen books, including two prize-winning novels
(The Stolen Jew, Before My Life Began), two award-winning books of non-fiction
(Imagining Robert, Transforming Madness), and three collections of award-winning
stories. He has won six consecutive Syndicated Fiction Prizes. He lives in New York City.
Reviews of 1940:
"Jay Neugeboren traverses the Hitlerian tightrope with all the skill and formal daring
that have made him one of our most honored writers of literary fiction and masterful nonfiction.
This new book is, at once, a beautifully realized work of imagined history, a rich and
varied character study and a subtly layered novel of ideas, all wrapped in a propulsively
readable story. Neugeboren is marvelous. Part of the power of this intelligently and
finely wrought novel is that... thoughts and questions arise unforced from the story,
as though from life itself."
-
Los Angeles Times-
"Jay Neugeboren's 1940 is a taut, nuanced, beautifully written novel that
captures an anxious and uncertain time in ways that a straight rendering of facts
and dates could never achieve. Neugeboren casts a spell on the first page of
his novel that never goes away. This memorable work of historical fiction is
to be contemplated as well as savored." -Commonweal
"This tautly constructed, utterly readable book raises questions the reader must answer.
Highly recommended." -Library Journal, Starred Review
"Neugeboren's first novel in 20 years presents a fictional account of an obscure historical figure
in this intelligent, densely layered novel. Neugeboren's characters are nuanced and complex,
especially the strong-willed Elisabeth... the great characters and the author's thoughtful
examination of good and evil pack a cerebral punch." -Publishers Weekly
"A compelling read on many levels, offering personal reflection, historical speculation, and mystery."
-Kirkus Reviews
"There is plenty of imagination exercised in 1940. This strange story, encompassing several
mysteries and theological reflection, has a curious power and pull." -Gerald Sorin,
Haaretz
"1940 is simultaneously a psychological thriller and a love story, and am impressive
blending of research and the imagination. Neugeboren's novel is a page turner, and better
yet, a chance to meet, up close and personal, a largely unknown figure: Hitler's
childhood physician, Dr. Eduard Bloch." -Sanford Pinsker, JBooks.com
Advance praise for 1940:
"History, medicine, Nazi racial theory, and some of the most fascinating and well-drawn characters
- whether fictional or real - to be found in recent literature: it is all here in Jay
Neugeboren's beautifully crafted novel." -Sherwin B. Nuland
"Set in New York on the eve of World War Two, 1940 is a compassionate and beautifully
nuanced tale of love and salvation in the darkest of times. Jay Neugeboren has seamlessly
woven history, theology, romance, science, and a troubled family into a exquisite novel
of mystery and exploration of the human heart. It is also a page-turner, a thrilling read."
–Binnie Kirshenbaum
"A strange, haunting and original work, a novel of ideas, part-romance, part-comedy,
historical fiction of a high order, it is above all audacious and deliciously rewarding.
Though there are echoes of I.B. Singer and Cynthia Ozick in the emigre situation,
the handling of young Hitler is like nothing I've ever read. Doctor Bloch is an amazing
character, the passages told in his voice are uncanny, and his confrontation
scene with Doctor Landau made my hair stand on end." -Phillip Lopate
"Once again, Jay Neugeboren has proven himself one of today's master storytellers. 1940,
with its cast of eccentric characters and offbeat chain of events, offers a distinctly
original and provocative take on a crucial moment in history." -Lynne Sharon Schwartz
"A poignant tale of displacement in a time of displacement, where our hero is Hitler's
former physician hiding in the Bronx and our heroine a woman with her own perverse beauty
and perverse will. 1940 is a time bomb that explodes in our skulls with a fierce,
luxurious power and pull." -Jerome Charyn
“A strange and intriguing contribution to the body of work that seeks to cast light on the
dark phenomenon of Naziism.” -Anita Desai
Synopsis:
Set on the eve of America's entry into World War Two, award-winning novelist
Jay Neugeboren's first new novel in two decades, is built around a fascinating historical
figure, Dr. Eduard Bloch, an Austrian doctor who had been physician to Adolf Hitler and his
familiy when Hitler was a boy and young man, and who cared for Hitler's mother during her
illness and death from breast cancer. The historical Bloch was the only Jew for whom Hitler
ever personally arranged departure from Europe, and he must now, living in the Bronx,
face accusations over the special treatment he received from the Nazi dictator.
1940 focuses on Dr. Bloch's relationship with Elizabeth Rofman, a medical
illustrator at Johns Hopkins Medical School, who has come to New York from Baltimore to
visit her father, only to find that he has, mysteriously, disappeared. The story grows more
complex when Elizabeth's son Daniel, a disturbed young adolescent, escapes from the institution
in Maryland where his parents have committed him, and makes his way to New York, where he
is hidden and protected by his mother... and by Dr. Bloch.
1940 is a fiercely original novel that travels to dark places where it
exposes us to people who, like ourselves, inhabit a troubled world that is very much
in transition.
News:
*Saturday, April 12, 7pm. Morningside Bookshop.
Join author Jay Neugeboren in celebrating the release of his first novel in two decades at Morningside
Bookshop, on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.
Morningside Bookshop.
*Sunday, May 18, 1pm. Politics & Prose.
Jay will be reading from 1940 at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC.
Politics & Prose.
*Psychiatric Services has published an article by Jay Neugeboren, entitled
Personal Accounts: More Magic Bullets?
Psychiatric Services.
*Midstream Magazine has published an excerpt from 1940, titled "From the
Journal of Doctor Eduard Bloch: Maria Anna", in their January/February 2008 issue. Available on
newstands now.
Midstream.
*Thursday, February 7, 8pm. Jay Neugeboren with Ira Berkow and Cecil Harris.
Jay, along with fellow writers, will be reading from and talking about his work at Happy Ending.
Hear about the life of famed sportswriter Red Smith, the history of blacks in tennis, and a fictional
account of a college-basketball player expelled from the sport he loves because of scandal.
Gelf Magazine - Varsity Letters Reading Series.
*First review of 1940 is in, and it's a positive one at that. Publishers Weekly
(Jan.28) calls the book "an intelligent, densely layered novel...
that pack a cerebral punch."
*Jay Neugeboren has an article in the December 21, 2007 issue of Commonweal
called "Housing the Homeless: A Program That Works.
Click here for the complete article.
Review copies:
If you are affiliated with a media review outlet and would like to receive an advance galley
copy of 1940, contact Brian Obenauf at brian [at] twodollarradio.com.
|
