{"product_id":"9781466838710","title":"Hedwig and Berti","description":"\u003cp\u003eThirty-five years after publication of her first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Dorp\u003c\/i\u003e (followed by other works on cooking and gardening), Frieda Arkin returns to the world of fiction to give us another darkly humorous novel, \u003ci\u003eHedwig and Berti.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHedwig and Berti\u003c\/i\u003e is a saga of the totally unlikely marriage of a grandly Teutonic woman, Hedwig Kessler, and her diminutive cousin Berti, two upper-class German Jews forced to leave their homeland during the rise of the Nazis.  They flee to London, then to New York City, and from there, finally, to a university town in Kansas.  In London, Hedwig gives birth to a daughter whose broodingly dark construction and immense genius for the piano point back in time to the tragedy of her bloodline.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a story of prejudice taken to extremes, both within the domain of a severely class-conscious German-Jewish family and beyond it.  The characters are subtle, and finely-honed, and their story is told with grace and unexpected humor.  Like Penelope Fitzgerald, Frieda Arkin possesses a rare gift for combining love, wit, and dark realism in the reactions and behavior of her characters in the several cultures they are forced to adapt to.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47124838285552,"sku":"9781466838710","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466838710_p0.jpg?v=1769891220","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466838710","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}