The Empire of the Senses

This highly ambitious first novel by an author currently working on a PhD in English literature and creative writing sweeps us from a village on the Eastern Front during World War I to postwar Jewish settlements in Palestine and Buenos Aires, while the main story unfolds in Berlin, with World War II on the horizon. Though in one respect a historical saga, the work is especially an intimate look at the four members of the Pearlmutter family. Lev, a successful Jewish merchant, longs for Leah, whom he met at the front, while his marriage seems to have lost all appeal for his aristocratic, gentile wife, Josephine. Son Franz is both politically and sexually confused and makes bad choices that lead to disaster. Rebellious yet fashionable daughter Vicki falls in love with a young Jew from Aunt Leah's village who miraculously materializes in Berlin with news of his aunt.