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Shirley Russak Wachtel

A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel Paperback – Jan. 1 2023

by Shirley Russak Wachtel (Author)

4.0 8,935 ratings

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Spanning decades, an unforgettable novel about reckoning with the past, the true nature of friendship, and the dream of finding home.

1944, Poland. Jacob Stein and Zalman Mendelson meet as boys under terrifying circumstances. They survive by miraculously escaping, but their shared past haunts and shapes their lives forever.

Years later, Zalman plows a future on a Minnesota farm. In Brooklyn, Jacob has a new life with his wife, Esther. When Zalman travels to New York City to reconnect, Jacob’s hopes for the future are becoming a reality. With Zalman’s help, they build a house for Jacob’s family and for Zalman, who decides to stay. Modest and light filled, inviting and warm with acceptance―for all of them, it’s a castle to call home.

Then an unforeseeable tragedy―and the grief, betrayals, and revelations in its wake―threatens to destroy what was once an unbreakable bond, and Esther finds herself at a crossroads. A Castle in Brooklyn is a moving and heartfelt immigration story about finding love and building a home and family while being haunted by a traumatic past.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publication date

Jan. 1 2023
Dimensions

13.97 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
ISBN-10

1662508751
ISBN-13

978-1662508752
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Review

“This is a story about immigration, adaptation to new cultures, and…a chance to grapple with the traditional roles that women play…A solid choice for book clubs.” ―Library Journal

“Wachtel [shows] how surviving the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland…doesn’t guarantee a ‘happily ever after’ in America but may become a source of pride, strength, and reconciliation for the next generation.” ―Historical Novels Review

“A Castle in Brooklyn is a story about love and endurance. It follows Jacob and Zalman as they survive 1944 Poland and make their way to America, to a dreamlike life that is shattered too soon. With deep empathy, Wachtel lays bare an incredible resilience and desire to live that will inspire readers and keep them turning the page. Magnificent.” ―Rachel Barenbaum, author of A Bend in the Stars and Atomic Anna

“An enchanting, lively, and heartbreaking novel―all at once―A Castle in Brooklyn evokes such a tantalizing yet improbable image, especially for Holocaust survivors. Survival rendered them royalty, but could a fortress keep them safe from memories and destinies that could cross any moat? Wachtel delivers a most worthy debut.” ―Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible

About the Author

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to two precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur. For more information visit www.shirleywachtel.com.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little A (Jan. 1 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1662508751
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662508752
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 295 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #223,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #342 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #1,349 in Cultural Heritage Historical Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.0 8,935 ratings

About the author

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Shirley Russak Wachtel

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Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of A CASTLE in BROOKLYN, the moving story of a Holocaust survivor whose dream of building his own home and raising a family in Brooklyn is threatened when unexpected tragedy occurs. This highly touted debut novel reflects the aspirations of anyone who dreams of a better life. Other of her books include THREE for a DOLLAR, an anthology of her short stories, THE STORY of BLIMA, the journey of the author's mother in the Holocaust, IN THE MELLOW LIGHT, a book of poetry, and several books for children. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Wachtel is now a college professor in New Jersey where she lives with her husband, Arthur. She has earned a Doctor of Letters Degree from Drew University, and in 2017 she received the Middlesex County College Scholar of the Year Award. But her proudest achievement are her three sons and two granddaughters, Zoey and Emmy.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

8,935 global ratings

5 star		37%
4 star		34%
3 star		20%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Leslie Bethmann

a great read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book at first felt quite grim but it definitely got better. Luckily it was not a really difficult read as it was easy to continue reading long enough for it to end up inspiring and a happy ending!

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Amazon Customer

Beautiful language read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 20, 2023

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I love the depth of some of the wording in this book. Not to deep to understand but words that are colourful. This book has many tragic stories in it but I stopped from feeling to sad when the book found new joyful stories to keep me interested. From redeveloped friendships and new family relations!

An overall fantastic read!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 22, 2023

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Just read it. You'll see for yourself. This book is more than a story. It is an inspiration for family, true loyalty, and survival.

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G H

Sure to keep you reading

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 13, 2023

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This book has a great plot. The strength of friendship and lives lived comes through. A beautiful story with an unexpected end.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 6, 2023

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I loved this story. How it all was interconnected.
How it all worked out in the end. The sad and the happy.

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Evalina

It was not a bad read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 28, 2022

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The book was quite sappy and predictable …. The writer was competent, the reader was very good but the story was slow which is ok if you like that kind of thing. For me it was just something to finish

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canadianreader

Beautifully constructed story!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 3, 2023

Shirley Russak Wachtel’s debut novel, A Castle In Brooklyn, is a beautifully constructed story following two young men, Salman and Jacob, across six decades from Poland to America. She reveals how the experience in their teens with the Nazis influenced almost every aspect of their future.

I appreciated the reminder that their survival, both present and future, depended on their honesty and trust in each other. In addition to an examination of what makes a house a home and what constitutes ‘family,’ I also appreciated her focus on what ‘being there’ for another really entails. If we aren’t willing to unpack the baggage and deal with the fallout, we aren’t really a support for a needy friend.

While the beginning was focused and compelling, the narrative slowly meandered through the following decades and my interest waned slightly along the way. Regardless, this is a heartfelt debut story about the weaving together of dreams, disappointments, and three hearts.

I was gifted this copy by Little A and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

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Lindsay Wincherauk

The first chapter was riveting.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 26, 2023

The first chapter was riveting. And then…

They built a house. A family grows. A child dies. Friendships are destroyed.

Infidelity. Racism. Other stuff.

Who are these characters? Why are they here?

Someone from Japan enters the story. People keep dying. Stories lay unresolved. The characters become pedantic. The house’s new tenants rearrange the furniture. A jogger runs by with water bottles, hugging their thigh (or something like that). A nosey neighbour.

Another page. Introspection. Two vehicles collide.

And then…

It’s been 10 years since 9/11 - was mentioned; so is Aids.

Why is 9/11 mentioned?

Back to the Vehicles Colliding

The last thing he saw was MERCURY.

If it was the last thing he saw, how do we find out?

Someone smokes weed, or does heroin, or cocaine, or…

I’m being mean.

I’m confused. No, I’m not.

I read the acknowledgments.

I rarely read the acknowledgments.

Writing is hard.

The book’s layout is good.

WRITTEN: 26 Feb 2023

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

VICKI HERBERT

Jacob was a Dreamer...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

No spoilers. 3 1/2 stars. A CASTLE IN BROOKLYN by Shirley Russak Wachtel...

In 1944's Poland, Jacob was hiding from the Nazis in the widow Frau Blanc's barn loft...

... with a fellow Jewish boy named Zalman. Frau Blanc sheltered and fed the two young boys until...

The Germans finally caught up with them...

The Nazis dispatched Frau Blanc and forced the two to join a wave of humanity marching toward a nearby clearing and a mass grave...

The Jews were given shovels and forced to dig...

At the first rays of moonlight...

The two friends put down their shovels, fled into the surrounding forest and ran for their lives...

It is 1952 and Jacob now lives in America, working in a seltzer bottling warehouse in New York and taking English classes where he meets his wife Esther...

Jacob dreams of building his castle...

And, following his marriage to Esther, Jacob sends for his friend Zalman to come help build his dream home and live in the house with he and Esther...

This novel was my Amazon First Reads selection for December 2022. The pickins' were slim indeed this month but I settled for this story because the others were just not my kind of reading material.

The first half of the story was very interesting and I thought that I had somehow managed to pick a good book from the pitiful handful of offerings but then there was the second half... whew!!

At that point the plot meandered all over the place introducing many decades and so many different people that I finally lost interest in the whole enchilada.

I gave myself a pat on the back for staying with it to the bitter end but it took me a week to accomplish this.

Summarizing, first half was good; second half not so much.

63 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Reborn in America

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2022

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As the son of Holocaust survivors I was really excited to read this book as my selection of December first reads. For 70% of the book I was not disappointed. The story of how the two young boys survived almost certain death and made their way to Brooklyn for a new life is inspiring. Having grown up in Brooklyn I could also relate to the neighborhood and the activities our three main characters enjoyed. Life in Brooklyn, USA was good even though filled with tragedy at times. A potential love triangle also exists. 70% into the book there seemed to be a series of separate stories that were only loosely related to the main story. I found my attention wandering after loving the story. I worked my work through the next 25% of the book and in the end it was worth it as the author brings the story full circle. So for me this book is mostly a five but because of what I felt were unneeded sidetracks I rated the book a 4.

49 people found this helpful

Scott J Pearson

A few shortcomings, but charming and tragic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

Two young Jewish men were orphaned during the Holocaust, but by hiding together, survived. They eventually achieved passage to the United States. They learned English, and one fell in love with another Jew who left before the Holocaust. This new couple married and started to establish a life. The other, with a longstanding interest in architecture, built them a house in Brooklyn. From there, this story unfolds with tales of love and loss, of affection and serendipity, and of things that stand the test of time.

The main story focuses on the love of two brothers and one’s wife. This story was emotionally compelling and left me turning the pages. The human strengths and failings of the characters are all too real. The buoyancy of immigrants – and of Jews in particular – amidst adversity is thematically all over this story. In that sense, it is a story of human triumph within loss and survival.

This book is set in history, but is not really historical fiction. Other than the Holocaust, its moorings are essentially timeless and not specific to a certain location. Some of the later stories of other tenants did not catch my intrigue and seemed a bit unnecessary for the main plot.

Life commonly has many starts and restarts. This book underscores that and should draw an audience interested in human perseverance and determination. The characters are strong. This story also speaks of the power of place to house human drama. Lovers of literary fiction will be drawn in because of the appropriateness of these three’s love for each other. Yes, much like each protagonist, this book has a few shortcomings, but not enough to hold back the work from ultimate success.

32 people found this helpful

A Discerning Critic

If you love beautiful descriptions, vivid imagery, you will love this novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

There's nothing I did not like. I highly recommend this book for the writing style and for the story, which is timeless. The novel deals with relationships, with hiding baggage from one's past within a marriage, with being in love with a woman already married, with friendship, with assimilating into a new world, and with creating a house, a home, in order for that assimilation to occur. Jacob and Esther's marriage within the home that Jacob has built for them, seems perfect. But Jacob is not willing to share his past with Esther, a past that involves his life during the Holocaust, and when tragedy ensues, he is unequipped to deal with it because of his secret past. Esther is forced to turn to Jacob's best friend for help and support, and this causes a major conflict in the novel. Captivating story. A must read!

23 people found this helpful

Paula

Worth reading

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

There were many features of this book that I enjoyed very much. I am reasonably well read in this genre, and there was an air of authenticity throughout. The author wove a background mood that was a fine blend of dark, indelible memory; goal-driven striving; inexhaustible hope; and loyal love and friendship. The first chapter was masterful, in my opinion: a well crafted hook that struck a resonant chord for me.

I liked the way the story line wound through many characters’ perspectives without actually shifting narrator voice. The author had a deft touch with that. I felt like the proverbial fly on many walls without ever feeling a strong, jolting shift. Nice!

Something else that struck me well as I read as the feeling I was getting a peek into a side of male tenderness that we don’t often encounter. The main male characters’ inner thoughts are all explored gently and expressed clearly and frankly. The author did some terrific work in that vein, and I find myself thinking about the men and boys even though I finished the book days ago. I think I will remember them for a long time.

A couple of “I wish you hadn’t done thats” though:

The section that plopped a family from Georgia into the middle of the story was truly bad. The characters were unsavory, their actions were ugly, and the later erasure of their clearly destructive act at the end of their section goes unexplained. It’s like the author found a weird thread, tried to weave it in, decided to abandon it and then forgot to come pull it out later. Ugh. And the inclusion of a totally improbable connection to the main plot was in sharp contrast to the aforementioned authenticity of the tale. The book would lose nothing and gain a bit by that part being omitted. Please.

The time spent on that chapter would have been better spent flushing out a lead-up to the way the story ended. As it is, I closed the book semi-happy with the closure, but mostly feeling like the author had remembered she had somewhere else to be and needed to hurry up and just get this off to the editor.

It’s a good story, and I found it worth reading. I will be on the lookout for more by this writer.

18 people found this helpful

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A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel Paperback – Jan. 1 2023

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About the author

Shirley Russak Wachtel

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