The Château
The Château

Author: Paul Goldberg

Publisher: Picador

Published: 2018-02-13

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1250116104

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"We have proverb in Florida...You know why it's good to be on beach?" Bill smiles, but says nothing. He wants the guy to keep talking. "Because on beach you are surrounded by idiots on only three sides." "And on the remaining side you have what?" asks Bill. "Sharks..." Paul Goldberg, the acclaimed author of The Yid, takes us behind the scenes of a Florida condo board election, delivering a wild spin on Miami Beach, petty crime, Jewish identity, and life in Trump's America. It is January 2017 and Bill has hit rock bottom. Yesterday, he was William M. Katzenelenbogen, successful science reporter at The Washington Post. But things have taken a turn. Fired from his job, aimless, with exactly $1,219.37 in his checking account, he learns that his college roommate, a plastic surgeon known far and wide as the “Butt God of Miami Beach,” has fallen to his death under salacious circumstances. With nothing to lose, Bill boards a flight for Florida’s Gold Coast, ready to begin his own investigation—a last ditch attempt to revive his career. There’s just one catch: Bill’s father, Melsor. Melsor Yakovlevich Katzenelenbogen—poet, literary scholar, political dissident, small-time-crook—is angling for control of the condo board at the Château Sedan Neuve, a crumbling high-rise in Hollywood, Florida, populated mostly by Russian Jewish immigrants. The current board is filled with fraudsters levying “special assessments” on residents, and Melsor will use any means necessary to win the board election. And who better to help him than his estranged son? As he did in The Yid, Paul Goldberg has taken something we think we know and turned it on its ear. Featuring a colorful cast of characters, The Château guarantees that you will never look at condo boards, crime, kleptocracy, vodka, Fascism, or Florida the same way again.

The Glass Château
The Glass Château

Author: Stephen P. Kiernan

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2023-06-20

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 1443470953

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From the critically acclaimed author of Universe of Two and The Baker’s Secret, a novel of hope, healing and the redemptive power of art, set against the turmoil of post–World War II France and inspired by the life of Marc Chagall One month after the end of World War II, amid the jubilation in the streets of France, are throngs of people stunned by the recovery work ahead. Every bridge, road and rail line, every church and school and hospital, has been destroyed. Disparate factions—from Communists, to Resistance fighters, to federalists, to those who supported appeasement of the Nazis—must somehow unite to rebuild their devastated country. Asher lost his family during the war, and in revenge served as an assassin in the Resistance. Burdened by grief and guilt, he wanders through the blasted countryside, shocked by what has become of his life. When he arrives at the Château Guerin, all he seeks is a decent meal. Instead he finds a sanctuary, an oasis. The people there are every bit as damaged as he is, but they are calming themselves and recovering, inch by inch, by turning sand into glass, and glass into windows for the bombed cathedrals of France. It’s a volatile place, and these former warriors manage their trauma in different ways. But they are helped by women full of courage and affection. Asher turns out to have a gift for making windows. He decides to hide the fact that he is Jewish so the devout Catholics who own the château will not expel him. As the secrets of the château’s residents become known one by one, they experience more heated conflict and greater challenges. And as Asher kindles his talents for glasswork, his recovery will lead the way for them all.

Chateau of Secrets
Chateau of Secrets

Author: Melanie Dobson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-05-13

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1476746125

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A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past. Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France. But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child. A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover… With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.