Product Details

• Published on: 1998-12-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Moring's novels--In Babylon is the third-- are bestsellers in his native Holland, it's to be hoped that British audiences will snap up his work with equal eagerness. In Babylon is family history, love story, ghost story and fairytale all rolled into one. In essence--but this is a book whose essence is elusive--it is the story of Nathan Hollander, who has inherited a hunting lodge from his recently-deceased uncle Herman on the condition that he, Nathan, produces a biography of Herman, a world-famous sociologist.

Nathan and his beautiful niece Nina are trapped in the lodge during the worst blizzard the East Netherlands have ever seen: the perfect opportunity for them to explore the convoluted history of this family of Jewish clockmakers who left Poland in the 17th century and ended up, during the Second World War, at the heart of the Manhattan Project. Along the way Nathan gets advice from Chaim and Magnus, a pair of ironical ancestors whose death 300 years ago hasn't stopped them from kibitzing, and discovers that his feelings for Nina are more than just familial. In Babylon is that rarest of things: a truly intelligent, philosophical novel with a terrific story at its heart. --Erica Wagner

Synopsis
Trapped in a deserted house during one of the worst blizzards in memory, Nathan Hollander and his niece, Nina, piece together a family mystery with the help of two seventeenth-century ghosts.

From the Publisher
From the reviews of In Babylon
"Marcel Moring is beyond doubt one of the most imaginative and perceptive novelists writing today." Paul Binding, TLS

"Certain books make the reader recall what extraordinary contraptions these objects are. Paper, some glue, ink: lo and behold, a Tardis. Not much to look at from the outside, but inside, infinite, forever unfolding, a tower to the clouds and a tunnel deep into the earth, an arrow into the heart. In Babylon is such a book. It is impossible to put this fat, rich novel into any kind of category. It moves confidently between family history, fairy story, love story, ghost story. Like the Jewish family whose stories it unfolds, it is wide-ranging, adaptable, learned and clever." Erica Wagner, THE TIMES

"In In Babylon, a book rich in death, ghosts and jokes, a dynasty of wondering clockmakers make their way, forever impelled westwards as refugees. It is Marcel Moring's achievement that he has rendered this profusion of trails from the Old to the New Worlds so diverse, so divergent and so divinely - or diabolically - funny." Amanda Hopkinson, Independent on Sunday

"With this novel, Moring has finally joined the ranks of the most important European writers of his generation." DIE WELT

"This is one of those immensely rewarding novels, instantly readable yet full of imagery, myth and magic. Multi-layered, full of serpentine twists and completely original. In Babylon pulls you deep into its singular world of suspense, mystery and imagination." THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE

Customer Reviews

Another deeply moving tale from Marcel Moring
I don't know how popular marcel morings books are but they deserve a great audience. What begins as a surreal whodunit becomes in turns a deeply moving reflection on identity and relationships. Moring combines this with a history of the modern world, a studied knowledge of Jewish culture and a dry, erotic humour. The result is a wonderfully complex book. As one critic urges "read this book, then read it again."