Hester Among the Ruins

A darkly comic novel with the moral power of Bernhard Schlink's The Reader about love in the shadows of history.

Born in New York in 1963, historian Hester Rosenfeld — very American and marginally Jewish — goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. Born in Berlin in 1943, raised in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor famous — he is simply the German Everyman. Hester believes his life story could make for an important contemporary historical document — kitchen table history. Heinrich is married (four times, twice to his current wife) and has four daughters. But madly in love with Hester, adultery is nothing new to him. As he assists her in her note-taking — about him and his family, about German history — she often suspects Heinrich is covering up something. Was his brother really a Werewolf, a Nazi militiaman who vowed to continue fighting after the war's end? What kind of gas company did his mother work for? And what exactly did his father do during those years?

Yet Hester has her secrets, too, and the longer she remains in Germany the harder it is to keep them concealed. As she uncovers more of the Falk family's possible connection to Nazism, she finds herself reexamining her feelings about her own parents and her complicated attraction to Heinrich. As the lovers' intimacy deepens beyond the erotic, each suspects the other of hiding something about the past.

Called a "rare and remarkable writer" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham, Kirshenbaum has written a searing novel about history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.

"Kirshenbaum brings believable complexity to her portrayal of Jewish life in contemporary Munich....The novel's structure, a mixture of postcards, e-mails, and straightforward narrative, is subtly erected and does not obstruct understanding. While Kirshenbaum occasionally portrays characters' passions melodramatically or even tritely, the arc of the lovers' mutual education is complete and convincing." Publishers Weekly

"The younger sister of Philip Roth, the lost doppelganger of Erica Jong." Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Not many female novelists can deal with sex, the appetite for it, and the loss of such appetite with as much candor, lack of self-protection, and humor as Binnie Kirshenbaum." Norman Mailer

"Hester Among the Ruins is an emotional journey told completely in first person, and Kirshenbaum shows tremendous restraint in divulging information about Hester, adding depth to the character and to the story....Overall, the story unfolds rather swiftly and appears well controlled by the author, yet near the end of the book there emerge a number of abrupt and awkward turns. Some cliched phrases and observations better left unsaid, as well as a few areas of overexplanation, slow down the momentum and cast late doubt on Kirshenbaum's mastery of her text....[Nonetheless], Hester Among the Ruins is a surprisingly engaging and enjoyable novel." Christine Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle

Born in New York in 1963, historian Hester Rosenfeld--very American and marginally Jewish--goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. As the lovers' intimacy grows, each suspects the other of hiding something about the past. Called a "rare and remarkable writer" by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Hours"), Binnie Kirshenbaum has written a searing novel about history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.

Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of three novels, On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, and Pure Poetry, and a story collection, History on a Personal Note. She teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, and she lives in New York City.