Susan Lee Kerr’s debut historical novel is more than just a portrait of her extraordinary great grandfather — it’s a story about Europe and America, Christians and Jews, science and superstition, and the impact of immigration, dislocation and modernity on three generations of a gifted but turbulent family. Ephraim Epstein’s journey is geographic, spiritual and psychological, and it takes him — and us — from the 19th century to the 20th in this compelling, surprising and carefully researched narrative.

— Glenn Frankel, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of

The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend