About the Book
Fiction. Jewish Studies. On the night of November 6th, 1941, the life of Isaac Gochman, a 16 year old Polish Jew, changes tragically and profoundly. Over 20,000 Jews from Rovno, Poland are marched into the Sosenki Forest by the Nazis, stripped and shot to death, then buried in an endless, unmarked ravine. All of Isaac's family and friends die in the massacre. But Isaac miraculously survives the slaughter, and so begins his incredible and harrowing journey through the Polish forest, facing unimaginable hardships and the constant threat of death from the Nazis and their sympathizers.
To save himself, he adopts a new identity, Sergei, a Russian Christian, and joins the Russian Partisan Brigade, to become a demolition "miracle man." As a Partisan, he falls passionately in love for the first time in his young life with Ducia, a Russian Nurse.
Near the end of the war, with Ducia tragically gone forever, he turns his back on his homeland, heroically saves the lives of American soldiers, and finds a new home in America.
Isaac is a true coming-of-age story of miraculous survival, courage and love.
"Isaac, based on a true story, follows the epic journey of young boy from near-death to ultimate triumph as a man. It is as harrowing as The Revenant. In parable- like prose, it captures Isaac's miraculous survival of the Nazi massacre of his family and his escape alone into a vast, nightmarish European Forest. After being saved by his friend, Pietka, a gentile from near his village, he joins the Russian Partisans and falls in love with Ducia, a Russian Partisan Nurse. I was immediately drawn into the plight of this brave young man as he learns how love and friendship can overcome the memories of hatred, discrimination, and terrible loss. This is a masterful coming-of-age novel amid the horrors and passions of war."--Dick Allen
"Isaac narrates the story of a young Jew from Rovno whose wartime survival among partisan fighters in the forests of eastern Europe is grippingly told from first page to last. For their sheer terror, the descriptions of Isaac's ordeals match those in Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird and some of Aharon Appelfeld's fiction. Readers drawn to tales of human resiliency against all odds will find this a compelling novel."--Alvin H. Rosenfeld
About the Author :
Robert Karmon is an award-winning playwright, published poet, short story writer, and published screenwriter, who has worked on screenplays for Columbia Pictures, CBS, and Eddie Murphy Productions. He was a member of Playwrights Horizon and Edward Albee's Playwrights Unit. His plays have been staged at Brown University and New York's Playwrights Horizons, where his plays, Demons and The Conditioning of Charlie One, were performed. His play, The Waiting Room... about the tragic life of 20th-Century physicist, Paul Ehrenfest, was chosen by Urban Stages Theatre for their New Works for a New Season and was later staged at The Workshop Theatre Company as part of their Plays in Progress program. His play Caliban and Miranda won Atlanta's Clayton State Theatre International Playwriting Award. He has seen his plays staged at La Mama's Extension Theatre and Long Island's Arena Players, and in many regional theatres around the country. As a Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, he has taught at Temple University, Queens College, and Hunter College, and is currently Professor Emeritus of Literature and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College in Garden City, Long Island. He is married with two daughters and three grandchildren.
Review :
Isaac, based on a true story, follows the epic journey of young boy from near-death to ultimate triumph as a man. It is as harrowing as "The Revenant." In parable-like prose, it captures Isaac's miraculous survival of the Nazi massacre of his family and his escape alone into a vast, nightmarish European Forest. After being saved by his friend, Pietka, a gentile from near his village, he joins the Russian Partisans and falls in love with Ducia, a Russian Partisan Nurse. I was immediately drawn into the plight of this brave young man as he learns how love and friendship can overcome the memories of hatred, discrimination, and terrible loss. This is a masterful coming-of-age novel amid the horrors and passions of war. Dick Allen, author of Present Vanishing, Ode to the Cold War, This Shadowy Place, and Connecticut State Poet Laureate (2010-2015)
Isaac narrates the story of a young Jew from Rovno whose wartime survival among partisan fighters in the forests of eastern Europe is grippingly told from first page to last. For their sheer terror, the descriptions of Isaac's ordeals match those in Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird and some of Aharon Appelfeld's fiction. Readers drawn to tales of human resiliency against all odds will find this a compelling novel. Alvin H. Rosenfeld, author of A Double Dying, one of the seminal books on Holocaust Literature; Professor of English and Jewish Studies at Indiana University.
