Call It Sleep

David Schearl arrives in America in his mother's arms. Waiting for them is a father and husband consumed by frustration and a labyrinth of language and asphalt - New York City at the turn of the century. As David navigates his father's anger and this alien world, he begins to glimpse deeper mysteries: the ancient and enduring quality of Jewish tradition, the shadow and the light of human desire, the reasons why people seek refuge in another land...

One of the true masterworks of American fiction, Call It Sleep is a triumph of colour and sound, a towering peak of modernist writing, and an extraordinary ode to the child and the emigrant: the innocence, the confusion, the fear and the joy.