A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel

by Shirley Russak Wachtel

Overview

Spanning decades, an unforgettable novel about reckoning with the past, the true nature of friendship, and the dream of finding home.

1944, Poland. Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as boys under terrifying circumstances. They survive by miraculously escaping, but their shared past haunts and shapes their lives forever.

Years later, Zalman plows a future on a Minnesota farm. In Brooklyn, Jacob has a new life with his wife, Esther. When Zalman travels to New York City to reconnect, Jacob’s hopes for the future are becoming a reality. With Zalman’s help, they build a house for Jacob’s family and for Zalman, who decides to stay. Modest and light filled, inviting and warm with acceptance—for all of them, it’s a castle to call home.

Then an unforeseeable tragedy—and the grief, betrayals, and revelations in its wake—threatens to destroy what was once an unbreakable bond, and Esther finds herself at a crossroads. A Castle in Brooklyn is a moving and heartfelt immigration story about finding love and building a home and family while being haunted by a traumatic past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662508752
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2023
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to two precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur. For more information visit www.shirleywachtel.com.

Editorial Reviews

This is a story about immigration, adaptation to new cultures, and…a chance to grapple with the traditional roles that women play…A solid choice for book clubs.” —Library Journal

“Wachtel [shows] how surviving the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland…doesn’t guarantee a ‘happily ever after’ in America but may become a source of pride, strength, and reconciliation for the next generation.” —Historical Novels Review

“A Castle in Brooklyn is a story about love and endurance. It follows Jacob and Zalman as they survive 1944 Poland and make their way to America, to a dreamlike life that is shattered too soon. With deep empathy, Wachtel lays bare an incredible resilience and desire to live that will inspire readers and keep them turning the page. Magnificent.” —Rachel Barenbaum, author of A Bend in the Stars and Atomic Anna

“An enchanting, lively, and heartbreaking novel—all at once—A Castle in Brooklyn evokes such a tantalizing yet improbable image, especially for Holocaust survivors. Survival rendered them royalty, but could a fortress keep them safe from memories and destinies that could cross any moat? Wachtel delivers a most worthy debut.” —Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible

From the Publisher

11/01/2022

In Poland in 1944, Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as young boys hiding from the Nazis in the barn of a peasant who's willing to take this risk. When the Nazis arrive, they flee to the woods. The boys survive and manage to come to the United States. Jacob settles in New York and marries Esther, a young woman whom he met in his ESL class. Zalman goes to Minnesota and becomes a farmer. The two do not see each other for several years. Then Jacob invites Zalman to New York. He decides to stay, and together they build a house in Brooklyn to live as family. Then an unexpected tragedy and the ensuing grief bring about betrayals and revelations that destroy the bond between Jacob and Zalman. This is a story about immigration, adaptation to new cultures, and, for Esther, a chance to grapple with the traditional roles that women play. The house itself is an important part of the story. VERDICT Wachtell's (This I Know) latest is a good historical novel about Jewish immigrants; a solid choice for book clubs.—Barbara M. Bibel

Library Journal

2022-11-16
Covering six decades, Wachtel’s debut novel about the friendship forged by two Polish Jews who survive the Holocaust together evolves into a story about surviving the many guises of loss.

In 1944 Poland, Jacob Stein, 18, and Zalman Mendelson, 12, meet while hiding from the Nazis in a hay barn. They remain together—Zalman sharing his family’s tragic history, Jacob unable to talk about his past—until the war ends and they emigrate together to America. While Zalman farms in Minnesota, Jacob stays in New York City, where he marries Esther and takes over her job, one she secretly loved, managing her father’s business. Once financially secure, Jacob hires Zalman, whose father trained him in architecture and whose career in Minnesota has conveniently been cut short by an arm injury, to design the dream home Jacob has always fantasized building. Zalman moves into the finished house with Jacob and Esther in a supposedly temporary arrangement that lasts for years. The reader senses early danger signs of the romantic triangle that entangles the three for the rest of their lives. Esther grows dependent on Zalman for platonic companionship as Jacob becomes increasingly introverted. The birth and raising of their son renews Esther and Jacob’s marriage. But then tragedy strikes, causing decades of guilt, grief, and missed connections, almost always handled by those affected with fortitude and reticence. Except for the stereotypical portrayal of some poor White Southerners as cretins, Wachtel writes with a surfeit of affection for her characters, constantly (over-) emphasizing their well-meaning goodness. Although the last scene occurs in 2010 and Wachtel pointedly uses details like home decor and dress styles to demarcate the changing decades, the outside world remains a cardboard backdrop. Ultimately the novel’s focus shifts from the characters to the house that has bound and divided them, repository of their hopes, regrets, and memories.

A gentle novel of high ideals that never quite comes to life.

Kirkus Reviews