An engrossing, monumental epic of German-Jewish life in Berlin over four generations - a landmark book in English for the first time

'Amazing, courageous and significant' - NDR

'No other novel rescues the lost Berlin and the world of Jewish Berliners like this one. It is a work of disturbing truthfulness' - Süddeutsche Zeitung

Germany, 1878: young brothers Paul and Karl Effinger leave the German provinces to seek their fortune in Berlin. Ambitious and talented, they soon establish themselves as entrepreneurs and marry the daughters of high-society families. A flourishing horizon opens before them, but the Great War and the youthful rebellion of the 1920s lay waste to bourgeois certainties, and, as the generations pass, a rising antisemitism begins to shadow their bright world.

With dazzling historical sweep, Gabriele Tergit tells of the family's changing fortunes within the vibrantly evoked, ever-changing metropolis of Berlin. Full of parties, drama and the most delicious gossip, The Effingers is a vibrant, monumental portrait of Germany's Jewish life, in all its richness and complexity.

"The author has captured a vanished world for future generations" - Frankfurter Rundschau

"No other novel rescues the lost Berlin and the world of Jewish Berliners like this one. It is a work of disturbing truthfulness" - Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Amazing, courageous and significant" - NDR

"Anyone who reads it will accompany the characters for many decades and take some of them very much to their hearts" - Berliner Zeitung

"A blend of page-turner and the highest literary quality" - Der Tagesspiegel

"This fabulous, joyful, optimistic, and deeply sad panorama of Jewish Germany must find and retain its permanent place in the German canon" - Literaturspiegel

"Breathtaking... Gripping... Rich in beautiful details and colourful characters" - Télérama

"Addictive, impressive, stunning. A true masterpiece" - El Confidencial