''The Warsaw Anagrams'' is a 2009
Editions of the Warsaw Anagrams
Retrieved 6/7/21. novel by American-Portuguese author Richard Zimler
Richard Zimler (born 1 January 1956 in Roslyn Heights, New York) is a best-selling author. His books, which have earned him a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and the 1998 Herodotus Award, have been published in many c ...
. It has since come out in seven other languages: Portuguese, French, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Italian and Spanish. It was a bestseller both in the UK and Italy.
Set in the Warsaw ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
subsequent to the Nazi occupation of Poland
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, the novel is both a noir thriller and exploration of the day-to-day heroism evidenced by the Jewish residents.
In 2012, Zimler went on a book tour through Poland to speak with readers about the novel's subject matter. He wrote about his experiences for an American website, Talking Writing, in an article entitled “A Tale of Two Polands”.
The review in the San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
cited Zimler's novel as “one of the most important works of Holocaust literature” and author Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore (; born 27 June 1965) is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels,
including ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar' (2003), Monsters: History's Most Evil Men and ...
wrote that it is “an unforgettable, poetical and original journey in to the mysteries of evil, decency and the human heart”.
Plot
The Warsaw Anagrams is narrated by an elderly psychiatrist – Erik Cohen – who has recently died and who has remained in this world as a spirit or ibbur
Ibbur ( he, עיבור, "pregnancy" or " impregnation" or " incubation"), is one of the transmigration forms of the soul and has similarities with Gilgul neshamot. ''Ibbur'' is always good or positive, while dybbuk ( yi, ), is negative. ''Ibbur'' ...
. In kabbalistic tradition, an ibbur remains in our world because he or she still has an important duty – a mitzvah
In its primary meaning, the Hebrew word (; he, מִצְוָה, ''mīṣvā'' , plural ''mīṣvōt'' ; "commandment") refers to a commandment commanded by God to be performed as a religious duty. Jewish law () in large part consists of discus ...
– to fulfill. So Erik recounts the story of his last year in the Warsaw ghetto to the one visionary man who can see him and hear him in the hopes of discovering what he still must accomplish. The story he tells involves the murder of his beloved grand-nephew Adam, whose body was desecrated and left in the barbed wire surrounding the ghetto. Shortly after that horrific discovery, a young girl's body is left in similar circumstances, and, Erik – along with his best friend Izzy – are forced to become amateur sleuths. The evidence they uncover begins to point to a Jewish traitor luring children to their death.
References
External links
Article about Zimler’s book tour through Poland
*https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Warsaw-Anagrams-by-Richard-Zimler-2334861.php* Review in the San Francisco Chronicle
*https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-warsaw-anagrams-by-richard-zimler-2238077.html* Review in the Independent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warsaw Anagrams, The
2009 American novels
Warsaw Ghetto fiction