Short description
The story of four generations of the Bindel family as they fight for survival in a hostile world. From Imperial Russia in 1825, they head towards Western Europe, returning finally to modern Russia - where the Jews are still being persecuted. The author won the Booker Prize for The Elected Member .
Long description
This immensely powerful novel follows four generations of the Bindel family as they fight for survivial in a hostile world. From imperial Russia in 1825 they head towards Western Europe, returning finally to modern Russia - where the persecution of the Jews continues. The Bindel family are knit by unbreakable bonds of love and loyalty, bonds which survive conscription into the Tsarist army in the 1830s, the Odessa pogrom of 1871, emigration to the Welsh valleys and to Germany, the Nazis, the concentration camps and the Gulags.
Review
An extraordinary achievement THE TIMES Enthralling and terrifying EVENING STANDARD Powerfully told, unremitting in tone, BROTHERS is an impressive work, a profound reflective exercise for anyone born gentile and free. FINANCIAL TIMES Rubens has shown an ambition, architectural skill and ability to sustain an absorbing narrative that is rare in contemporary fiction SCOTSMAN