'The hero of this book was not a saint, nor even a tzadik - the nearest Jewish equivalent – but he was a hero. Were his motives selfless? No. He was after all flesh and blood. And heroes are not without their flaws. This is his story.'
Tholdi is a romantic. A teenage musical prodigy whose brilliant future is extinguished when the horror unfolding across Europe arrives at his door. One day he's captivated by the beautiful, mysterious Lyuba, whom he meets on his sixteenth birthday; the next he wakes to the Nazi-allied Romanians attacking his town of Czernowitz. Thousands are taken to concentration camps but Tholdi secures work at a local weaving mill – only to discover that his new employers are Nazi collaborators and the threat of the camps remains. When Tholdi sees one of the mill's owners with Lyuba, he glimpses a way to finally save himself and his family. But the stakes of his gamble are high and the steps he takes lead to impossible choices. Will Lyuba be the key to their survival, or will Tholdi's infatuation with her become a dangerous obsession that guarantees their death?
Unforgettable, moving and exquisitely told, Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem is a deeply personal WWII novel inspired by an extraordinary true story.
