The Emperor of Lies

Description

In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second largest Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lodz. Its chosen leader: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, a sixty-three-year-old Jewish businessman and orphanage director, and the elusive, authoritarian power sustaining the ghetto's very existence. From one of Scandinavia's most critically acclaimed and bestselling authors, The Emperor of Lies chronicles the tale of Rumkowski's monarchical rule over a quarter of a million Jews. Drawing on the chronicles of life in the Lodz ghetto, Steve Sem- Sandberg captures the full panorama of human resilience, and questions the nature of good and evil.

Steve Sem-Sandberg was born in 1958. He divides his time between Vienna and Stockholm.

"Mesmerizing...An irresistible work of fiction, absorbing from first page to last...Dickens would have been very pleased with this novel."--Carmen Callil, "The Guardian "(London) "Was Rumkowski a sinner or a saint? Collaborator or a liberator? It is around this central question that "The Emperor of Lies" swirls, providing along the way. . . cinematic detail that invites immersion in the way few contemporary novels of serious ambition do."--Daphne Merkin, "The New York Times Book Review""A resolute masterpiece, "The Emperor of Lies "looks for truths in the great domain of dissolving syntax and shadows we call history....A great achievement."--Sebastian Barry, "Salon" Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "Library Journal" (starred): "This is the story of the Lodz ghetto, located in Poland's second-largest city. Unlike the bigger Warsaw ghetto, the one that the Germans established at Litzmannstadt (their name for Lodz) was highly organized and offered jobs to thousands of Jews, who made items for use by the German army and civilian population--before they were gradually shipped off to the death camps. Masterminding this giant enterprise was Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the Eldest of the Jews and the "Emperor" of the title. How this initially unmarried and childless man, whom some would call a misfit, came to a position of preeminence in the ghetto is the heart of this riveting narrative. Sem-Sandberg, who lives in both Vienna and Stockholm, relied on the Ghetto Chronicle, secretly compiled by the Jews of Lodz, which he has deftly fictionalized. Readers must struggle with the issue of whether Rumkowski was a crass opportunist or saved countless lives through his near monarchical rule. Death's translation is first-rate, and the reading group guide should be especially helpful. VERDICT This portrait of hell is highly recommended to knowledgeable readers with a love of world literature and an interest in the era." --Edward Cone, New York"This extraordinary work of fiction is a historical novel in a deeper than the usual sense, since the author concedes that truth rather than fiction supplies the crucial detail that directs our moral vision . . . Sem-Sandberg's success lies in the way he conveys the moral tragedy not in retrospect but in its duration. As well as any other novelist of the Holocaust, he conveys someone else's nihilism as your experience, answering dehumanization with modest and convincing portraits of humanity."--Timothy Snyder, "The Times Literary Supplement" "It would seem all the more difficult . . . from this remove in time and after so much retelling, to write a freshly felt, fully absorbing novel about the Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "This extraordinary work of fiction is a historical novel in a deeper than the usual sense, since the author concedes that truth rather than fiction supplies the crucial detail that directs our moral vision . . . Sem-Sandberg's success lies in the way he conveys the moral tragedy not in retrospect but in its duration. As well as any other novelist of the Holocaust, he conveys someone else's nihilism as your experience, answering dehumanization with modest and convincing portraits of humanity."--Timothy Snyder, "The Times Literary Supplement" "It would seem all the more difficult . . . from this remove in time and after so much retelling, to write a freshly felt, fully absorbing novel about the Holocaust -- and yet this is exactly what Steve Sem-Sandberg has done . . . Was Rumkowski a sinner or saint? Collaborator or liberator? It is around this central question that "The Emperor of Lies "swirls, providing along the way an almost Dickensian c Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "It would seem all the more difficult . . . from this remove in time and after so much retelling, to write a freshly felt, fully absorbing novel about the Holocaust -- and yet this is exactly what Steve Sem-Sandberg has done . . . Was Rumkowski a sinner or saint? Collaborator or liberator? It is around this central question that "The Emperor of Lies "swirls, providing along the way an almost Dickensian cast of characters and cinematic richness of detail that invites immersion in the way few contemporary novels of serious ambition do . . . "The Emperor of Lies" is a chilling and illuminating look at a period of history that has been analyzed and reconstructed before but rarely in quite so three-dimensional a fashion." --Daphne Merkin, "The New York Times Book Review " "A Swedish bestseller, this sprawling, Dickensian novel of the Holocaust now lands in America, where it is sure to attract attention." --"Kirkus Reviews" "[An] extraordinary n Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "A Swedish bestseller, this sprawling, Dickensian novel of the Holocaust now lands in America, where it is sure to attract attention." --"Kirkus Reviews" "[An] extraordinary novel . . . The story has been told many times before . . . yet rarely with such imaginative empathy . . . A brilliantly sustained work of historical fiction." --Ian Thomson, "The Sunday Telegraph" "This is fiction of true moral force, brilliantly sustained and achieved. It helps us to do what is so hard, simply to think about the Holocaust. Normally, the mind sheers away in horror after exposure to the accumulation of grueling detail and to the ungraspable weight of the statistics. It is so difficult to focus our imagination, our empathy, and Sem-Sandberg provides a way for us to do that, guiding the reader through the mass of information to the human heart of these appalling events. Fiction here is operating at its best, to close the gap between past and present, bet Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "[An] extraordinary novel . . . The story has been told many times before . . . yet rarely with such imaginative empathy. . . A brilliantly sustained work of historical fiction." --Ian Thomson, "The Sunday Telegraph" "I have just finished this: fiction of true moral force, brilliantly sustained and achieved. It helps us to do what is so hard; simply to think about the Holocaust. Normally, the mind shears away in horror after some exposure to the accumulation of grueling detail and to the ungraspable weight of the statistics. What is so difficult is to focus our imagination, our empathy, and Sem-Sandberg provides a way for us to do that, guiding the reader through the mass of information to the human heart of these appalling events. I think that fiction here is operating at its best, to close the gap between past and present, between them and us: not through sentiment, but through real understanding. This is a stunning achievement and o Praise for "The Emperor of Lies " "Sem-Sandberg has achieved something monumental, but with a strange and necessary lightness of touch. "The Emperor of Lies" is sobering, scarifying, and, in its hunger for the truth, enthralling."--Sebastian Barry, author of "The Secret Scripture" "With "The Destitutes of Lodz" Steve Sem-Sandberg cements his position as one of Sweden's significant authors. The book deserves marked attention."--Markus Huss "Majestic . . . Frankly speaking it's an amazing novel . . . Part of the great achievement here is owed to how masterfully Steve Sem-Sandberg has managed to filter his material to a story with both cinematic flexibility and graphic clarity."--Mikael van Reis, "Goteborgs-Posten"