The Incandescent Threads

by Richard Zimler

Overview

From the acclaimed author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams comes an unforgettable, deeply moving ode to solidarity, heroism, and the kind of love capable of overcoming humanity’s greatest horror. The latest novel in the Sephardic Cycle, a group of independent works that explore the lives of different branches and generations of a Portuguese-Jewish family, the Zarcos. The other novels in this series (which can be read in any order) are: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Hunting Midnight, Guardian of the Dawn, and The Seventh Gate. All of these books were Number 1 bestsellers in Portugal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913640644
Publisher:	Parthian Books
Publication date:	11/07/2022
Pages:	500
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Richard Zimler was born in New York in 1956 and now resides in Porto, Portugal. His twelve novels have been translated into twenty-three languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in twelve different countries, including the United States, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Italy,and Portugal. Five of his works have been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the richest prize in the English-speaking world, and he has won several other accolades for his fiction across Europe and North America.

Editorial Reviews

"An absolute masterpiece." —Açoriano Oriental
 

"Deep [and] moving [with] an enormous emotional charge." —Time Out 

"Six magnificent narratives that are tied together by absolutely wonderful characters." —Diário de Notícias

"The latest effort by the author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (1998) succeeds with its strong emotion, memorable characters, and mosaiclike structure. Zimler's handling of the continuum of time is both moving and unsettling. A thoughtful and affecting novel about generational trauma." —Kirkus Reviews

"Zimler’s exceptional latest... a richly drawn, original portrayal of tenacity and sacrifice." —Publishers Weekly

"The novel focuses on Benni and Shelly Zarco, two cousins separated by tragic circumstances. Shelly, who is 11 years older, makes it out of Nazi-controlled Warsaw first, escaping through the forest on his eventual flight to Montreal. A thoughtful and affecting novel about generational trauma." —Kirkus Reviews

"compelling and powerful... a contemporary classic" —The Jewish Chronicle

"sublime... I now have many [Zimler novels] to catch up on." —Buzz Magazine

From the Publisher

2022-08-31
In the fifth of Zimler's novels about the Zarco family, mystical connections impart life-affirming meaning to Polish émigrés who lost most of their family in the Holocaust.

Told through multiple voices in various eras, the novel focuses on Benni and Shelly Zarco, two cousins separated by tragic circumstances. Shelly, who is 11 years older, makes it out of Nazi-controlled Warsaw first, escaping through the forest on his eventual flight to Montreal. A larger-than-life character who opens a downtown sporting goods shop there, he attempts to cope with trauma through his uncontrollable sexual urges for both women and men—including his close cousin. Smuggled out of Warsaw and raised in hiding in the town of Brzeziny by a gentile music teacher to whom he becomes devoted, young Benni is tracked down years later in Poland by Shelly. In New York, he becomes a successful tailor, loving father, and anti-war protester who struggles to see the difference between the Holocaust and the bombing of innocents in Vietnam. Forever haunted by the ultimate sacrifice his great-grandmother made in taking his place on a transport delivering Jews to a Treblinka-bound train, he turns to the cabala for answers. Tracing his Sephardic roots back to Portugal, he hears the thoughts of living and departed people in his head. So do other members of his extended family through their involvement in the arts and medicine. Dialogue is not Zimler's strong suit, and the long coda tracing the history of Jewish persecution back to Egypt is an unnecessary add-on. But the latest effort by the author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (1998) succeeds with its strong emotion, memorable characters, and mosaiclike structure. Zimler's handling of the continuum of time is both moving and unsettling.

A thoughtful and affecting novel about generational trauma.

Kirkus Reviews