A Ritchie Boy: A Novel

by Linda Kass

Overview

An extraordinary narrative inspired by true events.

1938. Eli Stoff and his parents, Austrian Jews, escape to America just after Germany takes over their homeland. Within five years, Eli joins the US Army and, like all those who became known as Ritchie boys, he works undercover in Intelligence on the European front to help the Allies win World War II. In A Ritchie Boy, different characters tell interrelated stories that, together, form a cohesive narrative that follows Eli from Vienna to New York, from Ohio to Maryland, and then to war-torn Europe before he returns to the heartland of his new country to set down his roots.

Set during the dawn of World War II and the disruptive decade to follow, A Ritchie Boy is the poignant, compelling tale of one young immigrant’s triumph over adversity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647420079
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Linda Kass began her career as a magazine writer and correspondent for regional and national publications. Her work has previously appeared in TIME, The Detroit Free Press, Columbus Monthly, and, more recently, Full Grown People, The MacGuffin, and Kenyon Review Online. She is the author of the historical World War II novel Tasa’s Song (2016) and is the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in central Ohio, where she currently lives.

Editorial Reviews

2020-07-01
A young Austrian Jewish man whose family has fled Europe on the eve of the Holocaust and settled in the Midwest has an unexpected experience in World War II.

In the wake of the Nazi annexation of Austria, a non-Jewish Austrian immigrant to the United States seeks the help of a wealthy department store magnate—doubtless inspired by the Midwestern Jewish families who founded the likes of Kaufmann’s and Lazarus—to get affidavits for her Jewish friend’s family, the Stoffs, to come to America. The Stoffs’ son, Eli, is a teenager when his family manages to immigrate, inadvertently leaving behind Eli’s grandmother and thereby dooming her. The novel’s title refers to the aspect of the story that has the potential to be the most interesting: When Eli, living with his parents in Columbus, Ohio, is drafted as an American soldier, his German-speaking background makes him eligible for a special military intelligence unit based at Camp Ritchie in Maryland. The “Ritchie Boys” are primarily recent German Jewish and Austrian Jewish immigrants and refugees who are therefore well positioned to spy on the Nazis. A compelling historical novel could certainly be written on this topic, thoughtfully probing an aspect of the Jewish American experience in World War II that has been largely unrepresented in fiction; unfortunately, this is not that novel. Only a small part of the story actually involves Eli’s experience as a Ritchie Boy; the rest describes the same few dramatic aspects of his biography—the day he and his family realized they had to get out of Austria; how a beneficent American businessman saved their lives; how Eli later met his wife—over and over again. These plot elements are reiterated by continually introducing additional narrative perspectives, which despite being new are not sufficiently distinct, nor do they provide any interesting new information. The story that the novel sets out to tell is a relatively simple one, and the rest seems to be only filler—poorly written at that.

A promising idea whose execution is disappointing.

Kirkus Reviews

07/06/2020

Kass’s heartfelt if diffuse companion piece to her debut, Tasa’s Song, is inspired by the German-speaking U.S. Army recruits who trained for intelligence operations at Camp Ritchie in Maryland during WWII. In 2016, widower Eli Stoff receives a letter addressing him as “Ritchie Boy,” inviting him to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the camp’s opening, where he’d trained in 1944. The letter opens a flood of memories, from his recently deceased wife, Tasa, to his early years in Austria. Kass then flashes back to 1938 Vienna, where Eli, who is Jewish, and his lifelong friend, Toby Wermer, who is not, are harassed while on a ski trip. After German troops march into Vienna, Eli’s parents decide they must get their family out of the country. They settle in Columbus, Ohio, and, after the U.S. enters the war, Eli, now a college student, struggles over whether he should enlist like his friends. Two years later, he’s drafted and ends up at Camp Ritchie. After Paris is liberated, Eli interrogates Nazis arrested there for impersonating Allied officers. He’s particularly affected by his questioning of teenager Malcolm Schlick, who reminds him of Toby. After the war, Eli finishes college on the GI Bill and meets Tasa, a violinist and Polish immigrant. While Kass’s episodic accounts are well-written, the discrete stories are disappointingly slack and don’t do much to illuminate character motivation. The result is a chain of events with very little linking them together. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards): Gold Winner in Historical Fiction

“Linda Kass’s eagerly anticipated second novel, A Ritchie Boy, is an engrossing, deeply moving story of the immigrant journey, a profound and timely reminder of how refugees have woven their strengths, talents, successes, and sacrifices into the fabric of America.”
—Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times best-selling author of Resistance Women

“...[a] lovely novel in stories...Kass doesn’t shy away from the horrors of exile, anti-Semitism, genocide, and war. But she also presents a strong case for stubbornly opposing that darkness with tolerance, decency, friendship, love, and hope. ”
—Historical Novels Review

“Told as a series of interconnected stories, Linda Kass’s captivating, based-in-truth novel A Ritchie Boy is about assimilation, hope, and perseverance.”
—Foreword Reviews

“A mesmerizing kaleidoscope of stories about displacement, finding home, and the kindness of strangers. Haunting and heartfelt.”
—Fiona Davis, national best-selling author of The Chelsea Girls

“From Vienna during the Anschluss to booming post-war Columbus, Linda Kass has done her homework. Half historical novel, half family saga, A Ritchie Boy will charm readers who loved All the Light We Cannot See.”
—Stewart O’Nan, author of A World Away

“I devoured A Ritchie Boy over a single weekend. What a rich, beautiful book Linda Kass has written. I found such poignancy and delight in every facet of these characters’ lives. This is first-rate historical fiction.”
—Alex George, national and international best-selling author of A Good American and The Paris Hours, owner of Skylark Books

“How did a whole generation of the Jews who were lucky enough to escape Hitler manage to re-invent themselves in America? In A Ritchie Boy, Linda Kass lovingly explores the spirit and the process of one such transformation. A compelling story of empathy, resilience, and the power of the American Dream.”
—Nina Barrett, Owner, Bookends & Beginnings

“A Ritchie Boy interweaves characters from Kass’s first novel, Tasa’s Song—providing a rich context of place and perseverance during the darkness surrounding World War II. The everyday human spirit is unmasked by the revelation of profound life experiences in this engaging tale that will appeal to public library customers.”
—Patrick Losinski, CEO, Columbus Metropolitan Library

“Historical fiction is a literary time machine. Thanks to the talent and imagination of Linda Kass, this journey back to the tragic days of World War II is both solemn and joyous – solemn because of the ghastly shadow of Nazism overtaking Europe, and joyous because of the forces of light that rose up to oppose it. These linked stories create a seamless and poignant whole, a deeply felt, richly described, and quietly moving meditation on faith, passion, sacrifice, struggle, and the everlasting power of family love.”
––Julia Keller, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Sorrow Road

“Trust Linda Kass to write delicately and compassionately about the pain and bravery required of refugees. Although her milieu is the Second World War, and the host country is the American Mid-West, this gem of a book resonates profoundly even today.”
––Helen Shulman, author of Come With Me

“Linda Kass’s A Ritchie Boy is a splendid gathering of memorable characters and stories about what it takes to leave a home, to travel to a new country, and to find a way to not only survive there, but to thrive. This story of persistence will warm you with its indomitable belief in family and in love.”
—Lee Martin, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever

“Filled with rich historical detail and strikingly beautiful turns of phrase, this novel-in-stories moved me, inspired me, and transported me to a different time and place the way only the best tales do. Linda Kass is a masterful storyteller with a knack for taking hold of the reader’s heart simply, gently, in a way that makes it easy to be swept away by her words. I highly recommend A Ritchie Boy.”
—Kristin Harmel, international best-selling author of The Room on Rue Amelie and The Winemaker’s Wife

“Linda Kass’s A Ritchie Boy is an American story of World War II Jewish immigrants and a wonderful account of families that came and helped others and the communities in which they lived. Its poignant telling makes me glad that there were some happy endings from such a horrific time in history.”
––Linda White, Owner of Sundog Books

“This collection of intertwined stories shines a light on the immigrant experience and their contributions winning the war. Readers of historical fiction and WWII fans will find much to admire in Linda Kass’s work.”
—Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books

From the Publisher