In the first biography of this figure, Sander Gilman tells the story of Becker's life in five worlds: the Polish-Jewish middle-class neighborhood where Becker was born; the Warsaw ghetto and the concentration camps where Becker spent his childhood; the socialist order of the GDR, which Becker idealized, resisted, and finally was forced to leave; the isolated world of West Berlin, where he settled down to continue his writing; and the new, reunified Germany, for which Becker served as both conscience and inspiration.

In a Jewish ghetto during World War II, a man manages to raise flagging spirits by circulating rumors of Allied victories and that the ghetto will soon be liberated by the Red Army. At this news, many people who are thinking of suicide decide to live.

"In this follow-up work to Jacob the Liar, Becker tells the story of a man named Aron Blank, tracing his life from his release from a concentration camp in the summer of 1945 through the next twenty or so years. Living in a ghetto at the start of the war, Aron had lost his wife who one day was arrested by the Nazis. In desperation, he turned over his two-year-old son, Mark, for safe-keeping to a neighbor just before he was deported. Now, having survived the war, Aron sets out, with the help of an American relief organization, to find his son."--Jacket.

"East Berlin, 1973: An 18-year-old Jew discovers that his father's friends are holding prisoner a former Nazi concentration camp guard in the family cottage. . . . interrogating and torturing him in an attempt to get him to admit to his war crimes" ("Booklist"). "A chilly and disquieting novel".--"Los Angeles Times".

Jurek Becker was one of the giants of postwar German literature. The novel for which he is best-known, Jacob the Liar, won wide acclaim, was awarded the Heinrich-Mann and Charles Veillon Prizes, and was made into two movies. It has been called “a novel about the martyrdom of Europe’s Jews that has never been surpassed” (Times Literary Supplement). The Wall is a new, brief collection of stories by Becker that have either never been translated into English or been published here in book form before. The title story, “The Wall,” recounts two boys’ risky adventure when they scale the wall of a transit camp to visit the ghetto their families have recently vacated. In “The Most Popular Family Story,” a favorite anecdote recounted year after year at the gatherings of an extended Jewish family subtly marks the absences left by the Holocaust. Also included are two stories of Communist East Germany and the wall that divided Berlin, “The Suspect” and “Romeo,” as well as a short essay on the Lodz ghetto, “The Invisible City.” Christine Becker has provided an introduction to the collection. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

An East German schoolteacher is jolted into an awareness of his mortality by a seeming heart attack. The actions he takes afterword put him on a collision course with the state in which he has painlessly, if numbly, lived his life. The results, while harsh, are not unwelcome as he finds a new vitality in a world seen through new eyes. Translated by Leila Vennewitz.

Cut off from all news of the war along with thousands of fellow prisoners, Jacob Heym accidentally overhears a radio broadcast that reveals the Red Army's advancement and is forced to tell a series of lies in order to explain his knowledge. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.