The international-bestelling saga of a large and colourful Jewish family buffeted from quiet respectability-of-sorts in 1871 to the Nazi death camps of 1945

1871. Cattle-dealer Solomon Meijer has made a reputation for himself as one of the few honest Jews in Endingen, a rare Swiss town in which Jews are allowed to reside. He leads a largely untroubled life, rewarded by his work and comforted at home by his wife and two daughters. But all of this is set to end when he answers a knock at the door in the middle of the night. On the doorstep stands his young distant cousin, Janki, half-dead and begging for refuge. The pitiful figure is invited in and given a coveted place in the bosom of the family, but when Janki recovers and regains his ambition and his fine-looks, he will change the Meijer family's lives for generations to come...

In the tradition of the great family romances of the nineteenth century, Melnitz is the saga of the Swiss-Jewish Meijer family, spanning five generations from the Franco-Prussian War to World War II. It is a novel of fate, fortune and great falls; a homage to the sunken world of yiddish culture and a celebration of the enduring spirit of biting Jewish humour.

"Stunning... A meaty saga about a Swiss-Jewish family and their fortunes from 1870 to the Second World War... The Meijers face misery, but the book is full of love and laughter, too" - The Times

"A novel of humour and charm... Reminiscent of the radio adaptation of War and Peace, with the joie de vivre and melancholic tug of Fiddler on the Roof" - Independent

"This epic family saga is finally published in English...a rich and textured portrait of a normal, imperfect family dealing with everyday challenges" - Irish Examiner

"The reader lives, loves and suffers with the characters... Charles Lewinsky has written a real page-turner " - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)

"An outstanding novel of a quality only seldom met with... This reviewer cannot remember having read such an extensive book in the last few years as swiftly, easily and inquisitively as this one " - Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland)