This book traces the origins of the legend that Jewish musicians in concentration camps were forced to play a Tango of Death at the gas chambers and shows how in this legend the actual history is hidden, distorted, or even lost altogether.

Mikhail Baranovskiy weaves a remarkably poignant story of loyalty, betrayal, honor, hope, love, and the effects of enforced mediocrity on talent, based on true events from World War II. Vienna, Austria, 1932. A violin virtuoso and musical genius, Jacob Mund's quick ascent to conducting the Vienna Philharmonic isn't too surprising. With a successful career, adoration and praise from all corners, and a beautiful fiancee, Mund has everything going for him - but that soon changes. With German occupation leading to the total ban of Jewish composers in Vienna, Mund accepts an offer from the Lwow Orchestra and relocates with his now-pregnant wife, Sophia, and a talented musician and close friend, Shmulik. But misfortune catches up with them. Mund's happy days in Lwow (Poland, today Lviv, Ukraine), come to an abrupt and unfortunate end when the Germans take over. His Jewish parents are robbed and shot on the streets, and he is shipped off to the Janowska concentration camp along with his wife, his daughter, and the other Lwow musicians. By a lucky twist of fate and with the help of an unexpected ally, his daughter Shera and his friend Shmulik escape the hell of the concentration camp, allowing them a chance to begin life anew. Mund is not so fortunate. Baranovskiy weaves an incredibly powerful and haunting tale that captures the horrors of Jewish persecution at the height of the World War II. If you enjoyed Born Survivors, The Lost and All But My Life, then you need to get your hands on this literary masterpiece. A famous writer, playwright, and screenwriter, Mikhail Baranovskiy has been recognized with many literary awards and has authored various children and adult books, as well as numerous television series, including Volkov's Hour, Girls, The Sisters Korolev, and Antique Dealer. Scroll to the top of the page and click the "Buy Now" button to get a copy today!

"Yuri Vynnychuk's novel Tango of Death is a literary masterpiece about the magic of pre-war Lviv." Dariusz Nowacki in Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland)

A collection mimicking the great writers of literary history, with each writer's name rearranged as a title, creating the subject for a parody rendered in the author's style.

Death Tango traces the Middle East dynamic back to the events of March 27–29, 2002. March 27, Passover Eve, witnessed the most bloody and traumatic Arab terrorist attack in Israel’s history, the Park Hotel bombing in Netanya. On March 28, an Arab League summit in Beirut adopted the Arab Peace Initiative, the most far-reaching Arab attempt to set parameters for ending the Israel-Arab conflict. The next day, Israel invaded and reoccupied the West Bank in Operation Defensive Shield. Alpher illustrates the interaction between these three critical events and depicts the key personalities—politicians, generals, and a star journalist—involved on all sides. It moves from a suicide bombing to the deliberations of Arab leaders; from the Israel Prime Minister’s Office—where Ariel Sharon fulminated against Yasser Arafat—to Washington, where the United States fumbled and misunderstood the dynamics at work; and on to the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli soldiers won a bloody military battle but Israel lost the media battle of public opinion. Based on extensive interviews and his deep personal knowledge, Alpher analyzes the three days in late March 2002 as a catalyst of extensive change in the Middle East, concluding that Arabs and Israelis are dancing a kind of “death tango.”

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2015 An NBC Latino Selection for Ten Great Latino Books Published in 2015 Arriving in Buenos Aires in 1913, with only a suitcase and her father’s cherished violin to her name, seventeen-year-old Leda is shocked to find that the husband she has travelled across an ocean to reach is dead. Unable to return home, alone, and on the brink of destitution, she finds herself seduced by the tango, the dance that underscores every aspect of life in her new city. Knowing that she can never play in public as a woman, Leda disguises herself as a young man to join a troupe of musicians. In the illicit, scandalous world of brothels and cabarets, the line between Leda and her disguise begins to blur, and forbidden longings that she has long kept suppressed are realized for the first time. Powerfully sensual, The Gods of Tango is an erotically charged story of music, passion, and the quest for an authentic life against the odds.

Aldo Bianchi, an Argentine former revolutionary living in Italy, travels to Havana where he meets the beautiful Bini, a graduate student working the hotels with great wit and panache. Bianchi soon discovers via his liaison with Bini that his nemesis, the Uruguayan military torturer Alberto Ríos, is living under a false identity in Cuba. Putting his tropical holiday on hold, Bianchi goes on the hunt for his sadistic enemy.Daniel Chavarría portrays the sensuousness and skullduggery of contemporary Havana, a city that offers erotic thrills to pleasure-seeking tourists even as it hides villains in its humid embrace. While Ríos thrives on bribery and corruption, Bianchi is driven by a desire to see justice done. Tango for a Torturer is a political thriller in which bawdy humour coexists alarmingly with chilling evocations of the evils wrought by military dictatorships in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.