description: Marshall Pearl is orphaned at birth aboard an illegal immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine in 1947 and brought as an infant to America. Determined to see the world in its beauty, ferocity, and ultimate justice, he does so, in scenes of gorgeous color and great excitement, as a child in the Hudson Valley, fighting the Rastafarians in Jamaica, at Harvard, in a slaughterhouse on the Great Plains, in the Mexican desert, on the sea, and in the Alps. Finally, he is drawn to Israel to confront the logic of his birth in a crucible of war, magic, suffering, and grace. At the opening of the book, he is one of the dying wounded being transported to Haifa during the 1973 War. We follow him as he dreams, reconstructing his life, until, by the strength of what he has learned, suffered, and hoped, Marshall Pearl rises.
language: English
title: Ellis Island.
titlecomplete: Ellis Island.
genres: Literature, Literary Fiction, American Fiction, Anthologies, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Jewish, Short Stories
ratings_count: 907
awards: awardedAt: 378720000000
name: National Jewish Book Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 378720000000
name: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, awardedAt: 347184000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 378720000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction (Hardcover)
publisher: Delacorte