Snow in August - by Pete Hamill (Paperback)

About the Book

In Brooklyn in the late 1940s, adolescent Michael Devlin is a dutiful son to his widowed mother and a conscientious altar boy at the parish church. One day, he meets Rabbi Judah Hirsch, a chance encounter that inaugurates a friendship with vast consequences, good and bad, for both of them. Michael lost his father in the war, and the rabbi, a recent immigrant to this country, lost his wife. The threads of their connection widen and strengthen as the rabbi endeavors to teach Michael about his native Prague and Jewish customs and lore, and the boy, in turn, instructs the rabbi about things American, including baseball. But Michael's awakening does not stop there; sadly, he learns hard lessons, to the point of bodily harm, about anti-Semitism. In fact, Michael must turn to extreme measures to effect a resolution to the problem of hatemongering; using his new storehouse of knowledge, he summons a golem!

Book Synopsis

Deeply affecting and wonderfully evocative of old New York, Snow in August is a brilliant fable for our time and all time -- and another triumph for Pete Hamill.

Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an eleven-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague.

Snow in August is the story of that unlikely friendship -- and of how the neighborhood reacts to it. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there's only one way out -- a miracle....

Review Quotes

"A tender novel....When it comes to evoking the sights and sounds of postwar Brooklyn streets Pete Hamill has no peer....When you finish that roller-coaster last chapter you'll wonder if the shade of Isaac Bashevis Singer whispered in his ear."--Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

"Magic....This page-turner of a fable has universal appeal."--New York Times Book Review

"Strong and soulful-a wonderful addition to a compelling body of work. Few are as good at evoking New York City's life and heart as Pete Hamill."--Oscar Hijuelos, author of Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

About the Author

Pete Hamill (1935-2020) was a novelist, journalist, editor, and screenwriter. He was the author of twenty-two books, including the bestselling novels Tabloid City, North River, Forever, and Snow in August, and the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life.