ConspiratorsMacmillan, 2004 - 506 Seiten Galicia, Austria-Hungary, 1913. In the castle of a frontier town, on the border between Europe and the East, the worldly, corrupt Count-Governor Wiladowski watches helplessly while a wave of assassinations sweeps the empire, and his province. When a member of his own family is murdered, the count gives broad police powers to his spymaster, Jakob Tausk: a brilliant young Jew whose ruthless war on terror extends into every corner of the province and beyond, enlisting union organizers, financiers, aristocrats and their servants, and a young novelist and playwright, newly arrived in the Vienna of Franz Josef and Freud, hungry for literary success. In the wake of new terrorist attacks, a mysterious preacher appears in the provincial capital--one of the so-called "wonder rabbis" from the shtetls of the East-trailing a band of fanatical disciples who proclaim him the messiah. Word of the charismatic leader spreads quickly from the Jewish quarter to the castle itself, and soon Tausk finds himself serving two masters: the count and the richest man in the province, Moritz Rotenburg, who has a private interest in the wonder rabbi and whose only son has returned from university, burning for revolution, to gather disciples of his own. Moving from underground meetings and makeshift synagogues to the bedrooms of country estates and the secret high councils of the ailing thousand-year-old Habsburg Empire, Michael Andre Bernstein's compelling first novel evokes a densely believable world on the edge of collapse, full of the haunting suggestiveness of a fable or nightmare, and the erotic, mystical, and apocalyptic passions of anage. |
Inhalt
PART ONE December 1912 | 49 |
PART TWO January 1913April 1913 | 119 |
PART THREE April 1913May 1914 | 229 |
CODA 1925 | 485 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
able Alexander Alpsbach already anti-Semite Asher Blumenthal asked Batya began believe Brugger Buczacz Burgtheater Café Central Castle Cathedral Square Christoph Chudo completely conversation Count Wiladowski Count-Governor course door doubt dowski entirely Ernst everything eyes father feel felt friends front Galicia Gerling Habsburg Hans's hear heard Hradl idea imagine Imperial Jewish Jews Josef Quarter Kaplansky kind Kirchmayr knew Kosch least letters Linnetchen listen look Marie-Luise matter Mendelssohn Club ment mind Moritz Rotenburg murder never night perhaps person Pfister police political province question quickly Rabbi Pelz realized rebbe Roublev seemed sense shtetl simply slivovitz smile someone Sonnenschön soon spite spymaster stop story sure talk Tausk tell thing thought tion told tone took town trying turned Vienna voice waiting walk wanted watched whole Wila wonder words yeshiva Zionist