In The House of Twenty Thousand Books, journalist Sasha Abramsky chronicles the vanished intellectual world of his grandparents, Chimen and Miriam, and their vast library of socialist literature and works of Jewish history.
The House of Twenty Thousand Books will go on sale September 1, 2015. NYRB is pleased to receive the following praise for Abramsky’s forthcoming book:
“This is a fierce and beautiful book. It burns with a passion for ideas, the value of history, the need for argument. As a memoir of a grandfather it is sui generis. I loved it.” —Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes
“Memoir of Jewish intellectual life and universal history alike, told through a houseful of books, their eccentric collectors, and the rooms in which they dwelled…In this entertaining, deeply learned book, Sasha Abramsky adds materially to Chimen and Mimi’s 20,000 volumes. On another level, the book, like that grand library, is a narrative of the broad sweep of Jewish diaspora history…If you finish this brilliant, realized book thinking you need to own more books, you’re to be forgiven. A wonderful celebration of the mind, history, and love.” —Kirkus starred review
“Abramsky’s tale begins after his grandfather Chimen’s death, with his family faced with the daunting task of cleaning out a London house filled to bursting with books, many of them rare, on Marxism, socialism, and Judaica. Doing so stirred the desire to make sense of this literary and familial legacy, which Abramsky chronicles in a loving but clear-eyed manner.” —Publishers Weekly
Watch a book trailer for The House of Twenty Thousand Books here.