Leizar

The story opens in 1843 in a small Jewish town, or shtetl, in Russian-controlled Poland. A child is born there in poverty, amid blood and pain, and his mother dies in childbirth. The novel follows the Domansky family across roughly a century and five generations, moving from the pogrom-ridden shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 1800s to suburban London after the Second World War.

Leizar, a writer and early champion of democracy, lives through pogroms, imprisonment, and antisemitism, as well as two world wars. He endures the cruelty that Cossacks inflict on the poor, along with violence and loss on every side, the desecration of his wedding in Poland, mock trials, and harsh punishments.

The family eventually lives in four countries, and during the Second World War they take shelter in northwest London while bombs shatter the windows nearby. Amid all this hardship, the book also portrays tender moments of love between Leizar and his wife, Chaya, as the two of them build a family that carries on through the generations.