num_pages: 417
description: Translated from the Dutch by Stacey KnechtPublished in Europe to tremendous critical acclaim, this richly imagined international bestseller weaves a gloriously inventive and very human story about man's constant drive from the Old World to the New--and his desire, despite everything, for home and homelandThe worst winter blizzard the East Netherlands has seen in many years has left Nathan Hollander and his niece, Nina, snowbound in the deserted house of his late Uncle Herman. But they are not alone: Apart from Chaim and Magnus, two seventeenth-century family ghosts, there is another presence, unknown and unfriendly. As they wait for the storm to subside, Nathan and Nina piece together the story of their forefathers, a family of itinerant Jewish clockmakers who came to the Netherlands from Eastern Europe, and then fled to America in 1939. An extraordinary family history emerges, as well as many unsolved mysteries: For instance, what happened to the brilliant Zeno, who became a leader of a messianic sect and then vanished without a trace; why did Uncle Herman, a respected academic, end up dying in such undignified circumstances--underneath an eighteen-year-old call girl?
language: English
title: In Babylon
titlecomplete: In Babylon
genres: Fiction, Mystery, Book Club, Roman, Jewish, Literature, Novels, Contemporary, Dutch Literature
ratings_count: 505
awards: awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Gouden Uil, awardedAt: 852105600000
name: AKO / ECI Literatuurprijs, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: William Morrow