Reviews
"Absorbing, unsparing, and beautifully written . . . [a] masterly novel." The New York Times Book Review "Stunningly lyric . . . a work of richly empathetic imagination that reminds us once again of how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands." Los Angeles Times "Superb . . . an emotional epic bearing echoes of Melville and Ondaatje, conveying scents and shimmers of a vanished world under the skin of our own." Jonathan Lethem, author of You Don't Love Me Yet "Extraordinary . . . a novel that animates the past this vibrantly should make volumes of mere history blush." The Washington Post Book World "Sprawling, cinematic, exquisitely detailed, exactingly researched, and keenly felt . . . a powerful work of excavation that achieves what historical fiction often can'tcredibility, along with a sense of the transportive." Boston Phoenix "Riveting . . . Behrens turns the archetypal immigrant's journey into Homeric epic." The Providence Journal "A beautifully written, poetically inspired tale of heroism, love, yes and sex, and the triumph of the human spirit." Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming
