Autumn 1940. The Nazis seal 400,000 Jews inside a small area of the Polish
capital, creating an urban island cut off from the outside world. Erik
Cohen, an elderly psychiatrist, is forced to move into a tiny apartment
with his niece and his beloved nine-year-old nephew, Adam. One bitterly
cold winter's day, Adam goes missing. The next morning, his body is
discovered in the barbed wire surrounding the ghetto. The boy's leg has
been cut off, and a tiny piece of string has been left in his mouth. Soon,
another body turns up - this time a girl's, and one of her hands has been
taken. Evidence begins to point to a Jewish traitor luring children to
their death... In this profoundly moving and darkly atmospheric historical
thriller, the reader is taken into the most forbidden corners of Nazi-
occupied Warsaw - as well as into the most heroic places of the heart.
Praise for Richard Zimler: 'A riveting literary murder mystery, [The Last
Kabbalist of Lisbon] is also a harrowing picture of the persecution of
16th-century Jews and, in passing, an atmospheric introduction to the
hermetic Jewish tradition of the Kabbalah.' Independent on Sunday 'Zimler
[is] a present-day scholar and writer of remarkable erudition and
compelling imagination, an American Umberto Eco.' Spectator 'Zimler has
this spark of genius, which critics can't explain but readers recognise,
and which every novelist desires but few achieve.' Independent 'Zimler is
an honest, powerful writer.' Guardian