The Far Euphrates

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Blending the everyday with the mystical, "The Far Euphrates" tells the story of Alexander, the lonely son of a rabbi in Windsor, Canada. His small world consists of his parents and the Cantor and his wife. As a young boy, Alexander learns a secret he struggles to bear, prompting him to seek knowledge in hopes of unlocking the universe's mysteries. He fills his solitary life with stories: his great-grandfather's legend as a rare-book dealer who traveled to ancient Mesopotamia, tales of flying carpets and djins, dark fairy tales, and Bible stories. His real life intertwines with memorable characters, including a dying wealthy girl who bequeaths him a sapphire, the beautiful wife of Henry Ford II, a Gypsy prophetess whose words transform his view of his mother, and the Cantor's twin sister, a victim of Auschwitz's Dr. Mengele. As Alexander's imaginative inner world shapes his experiences, he grapples with truths he is reluctant to accept. In translucent prose, Aryeh Lev Stollman captures the coming of age of a young man's soul while exploring profound themes: finding meaning in a post-Holocaust world, defining home in modern times, and understanding the boundaries between sanity, madness, and transcendence.