Synopses & Reviews
Fiction. Jewish Studies. Translated from the French by Helen Marx. This short powerhouse of a novel, set in Paris in the 1920s, follows the friendship between two 15-year-old schoolboys: one, a Gentile (the narrator), and the other, a Jew. Loyalties are tested as Silbermann becomes the target of the growing anti-Semitism that is spreading throughout French society. Ironically, the narrator's father is asked to preside over a case indicting Silbermann's father. In the end, a beloved friendship and familial bonds are undermined as idealism gives way to the painful realization of the moral compromises of adulthood. Jacques de Lacretelle (1888-1985) was a novelist, journalist, and director of Le Figaro. SILBERMANN was originally published in 1922 and was awarded the Prix Femina.
Synopsis
Silbermann is a beautiful but painful book . . . it is about the difficult ties of adolescent friendship in the midst of the cruelty of a group, the tensions between children and their parents and the themes of sincerity, bad faith and self-deceit.
Synopsis
Lacretelle's indictment of prejudice is as morally chilling today as it must have been in the 1920's
About the Author
(1888-1985) was a novelist, hournalis, and member of the academie francaise. Silbermann, his second novel, was orginally published in 1922 and was awarded the Prix Femina.