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Richard Zimler
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The Warsaw Anagrams: A Novel Hardcover – July 21, 2011

by Richard Zimler (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 149 ratings
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Yet only one visionary man--Heniek Corben--can see him and hear him. Heniek soon realizes that Cohen has become an ibbur--a spirit. But how and why has he taken this form? As Cohen recounts his disturbing and moving story, small but telling inconsistencies appear in his narrative. Heniek begins to believe that Cohen is not the secular Jew he claims to be, but may, in fact, be a student of practical Kabbalah? of magic. Why is he lying? And what is the importance of the anagrams he creates for the names of his friends and relatives? Heniek traces his suspicions and comes to an astonishing conclusion?one that has consequences for his own identity and life, and perhaps for the reader's as well.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The Overlook Press
  4. Publication date
    July 21, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.8 x 1.18 x 8.28 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1590200888
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1590200889
  8. See all details
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Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A gripping, heartbreaking and beautiful thriller."
Simon Sebag-Montefiore

"Beautifully written, moving and disturbing, this packs a powerful, emotional punch."
The Guardian

"Both a fast-moving mystery novel and a rich, serious book, in which Zimler...pays tribute to those who died in the Holocaust."
The Independent

From the Author


The Warsaw Anagrams: Giving Back Uniqueness to the Dead


At the start The Warsaw Anagrams, I've placed a quote from the novel's main character, Erik Cohen, an elderly psychiatrist forced to move into the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw soon after the Nazi occupation of Poland: "We owe uniqueness to our dead at the very least."  
   Erik comes to this understanding about the debt we owe our loved ones while listening to a devastated teenaged girl whose favorite uncle has just been murdered. Choking with tears, she tells Erik that her Uncle Freddi, an aspiring screenwriter, had been working with a German film star on a script before being interned in the ghetto. Erik is greatly moved because he realizes how urgently the girl needs for him to understand that her uncle was an individual with hopes, dreams and fears. So he listens to her closely.
   These considerations took on enhanced meaning for me as I wrote The Warsaw Anagrams because it is, in part, about daily life in Warsaw's Jewish ghetto, a one-square-mile section of the city in which the Germans forced the Jews to live from October 1940. At its height, 450,000 persons lived there, cut off from the rest of the world by a high brick wall topped by barbed wire.
   By creating this Jewish urban 'island', the Germans hoped to sentence its residents to oblivion - that the rest of the world would forget them. And to some extent, they achieved their goal. Even today, how many of us can talk with any depth about a person or family who lived there. How many of us know anything about their schools or the work they did?
   So part of my goal in The Warsaw Anagrams was to re-create the ghetto and restore individuality to its residents - to give back to them their uniqueness. I tried to do this through my characters - through Erik and the others. Indeed, I hope that when readers come to know their frailties and talents, their defeats and triumphs, they will begin to regard them as real people. I want those who pick up my novel to follow Erik on the heroic - and dangerous - journey he makes. I want people to know what a remarkable person he is.
   In The Warsaw Anagrams, Erik Cohen becomes one of the many millions persecuted by the Nazis, but he is also much more than that. He is a father trying to make amends for having neglected his daughter when she was a child. He is a hardworking therapist and faithful friend. He's grumpy when sleepy, given to boisterous laughter and a fan of the Marx Brothers and jazz. He demonstrates astounding courage at a time when he might easily give in to despair. And at his hardest times, he likes to sit at his bedroom window, puff away on his pipe and look up at the stars. He likes to imagine that all of nature is on the side of the Jews in their fight for survival.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Overlook Press; Reprint edition (July 21, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590200888
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590200889
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1.18 x 8.28 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 149 ratings

About the author

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Richard Zimler

Richard Zimler

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Richard Zimler was born in Roslyn Heights, a suburb of New York City, in 1956. After earning a bachelor's degree in comparative religion from Duke University (1977) and a master's degree in journalism from Stanford University (1982), he worked for eight years as a journalist, mainly in the San Francisco Bay area. In 1990, he moved to Porto, Portugal, where he taught journalism for sixteen years, first at the College of Journalism and later at the University of Porto. In 2017, the city of Porto awarded Zimler its highest distinction, the Medal of Honor. At the ceremony, Porto's mayor described the novelist as "a citizen of Porto who was born far away, who makes the city greater and grander... Zimler projects Porto out into the world and brings the rest of the world to us."

Zimler's new novel, The Incandescent Threads, will be published in the UK and Ireland on July 4, 2022. It will come out in the USA and Canada on November 7. Here is a brief synopsis of the novel:

From the acclaimed author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams comes an unforgettable, deeply moving ode to solidarity, heroism and the kind of love capable of overcoming humanity’s greatest horror...

Benjamin Zarco and his cousin Shelly are the only two members of their family to survive the Holocaust. In the decades since, each man has learned, in his own unique way, to carry the burden of having outlived all the others, while ever wondering why he was spared.

Saved by a kindly piano teacher who hid him as a child, Benni suppresses the past entirely and becomes obsessed with studying Kabbalah in search of the ‘Incandescent Threads’ – nearly invisible fibers that he believes link everything in the universe across space and time. But his mystical beliefs are tested when the birth of his son brings the ghosts of the past to his doorstep.

Meanwhile, Shelly – devastatingly handsome, charming and exuberantly bisexual – comes to believe that pleasures of the flesh are his only escape, and takes every opportunity to indulge his desires. That is, until he begins a relationship with a profoundly traumatised Canadian soldier and artist who helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen – and might just be connected to one of the cousins’ departed kin.

Across six non-linear mosaic pieces, we move from a Poland decimated by World War II to modern-day New York and Boston, hearing friends and relatives of Benni and Shelly's tell of the deep influence of the beloved cousins on their lives. For within these intimate testimonies may lie the key to why they were saved and the unique bond that unites them.

*****

Zimler has published 12 novels over the last 24 years. In chronological order, they are: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Unholy Ghosts, The Angelic Darkness, Hunting Midnight, Guardian of the Dawn, The Search for Sana, The Seventh Gate, The Warsaw Anagrams, Teresa Island (only in Portugal and Brazil), The Night Watchman, The Lost Gospel of Lazarus (previous title: The Gospel According to Lazarus) and The Incandescent Threads. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists in 12 different countries, including the United States, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and Australia. His books have been published in 23 languages and five of them have been nominated for the prestigious International Dublin Literary Award.

Zimler has also published six children's books in Portugal. In 2018, one of them, "The Dog Who Ate Raindrops," was awarded the most important children's book prize in the country - the Bissaya-Barreto Prize. He writes his children's books in Portuguese and his novels in English.

Zimler has won numerous other awards for his work, including the Marquis de Ouro Prize in 2010 - as Book of the Year in Portugal - for The Warsaw Anagrams. This prize is voted on by high school teachers and students. He also won the 2009 Alberto Benveniste Prize in Fiction for Guardian of the Dawn (for best Jewish-themed novel published in France), and the 1998 Herodotus Award, for The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (Best Historical Novel). Additionally, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon was picked as 1998 Book of the Year by three British critics. Hunting Midnight, The Search for Sana, The Seventh Gate, The Warsaw Anagrams and The Night Watchman have all been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the most lucrative book prize in the English-speaking world. He was also granted a 1994 U.S. National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction.

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Hunting Midnight, Guardian of the Dawn, The Seventh Gate and Zimler's new novel, The Incandescent Threads, form the "Sephardic Cycle," a group of inter-connected - but fully independent - novels about different branches and generations of a Portuguese Jewish family, the Zarcos. Each of the books is meant to stand alone.

Here are links to Portuguese reviews and Interviews about The Incandescent Threads (Ctrl + click to follow link)

Review in the Açoriano Oriental:

https://vambertofreitas.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/do-holocausto-e-da-nossa-heranca-judaica/?fbclid=IwAR3BKjxZpc0kEn1vR3Sng2dRuXVGbleuHsUb-wlwDHrSQcLqqkemHdWKGGs

Interview on RTP1 (Portuguese television)

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p4310/e369405/pagina-2?fbclid=IwAR0C7BtIfkHC_oiJpIK6TBLcz_DyjbChzEe7IDTeMI-rGe89h7fMFUJhTTE

Interview on RTP3 (television)

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p4253/e383035/todas-as-palavras?fbclid=IwAR1kXCwUAUbZPljA3glzG1OpAPYF_5NEaSamXk1WzbsHChO6FwG-ImsHrfs

Interview in Diário de Notícias

https://www.dn.pt/edicao-do-dia/14-out-2018/interior/nao-publicar-este-romance-vai-irritar-alguns-judeus-e-nem-entrara-em-serralves-9946362.html

Interview in Jornal de Noticias

https://www.jn.pt/artes/especial/interior/a-nossa-unica-defesa-e-o-conhecimento-10092266.html

Press Quotes from Portugal about The Incandescent Threads

Rarely is a novel published that evidences such extraordinary literary talent. Each character reveals different facets of our own humanity. AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE.

Açoriano Oriental

A novel that serves to preserve the important memories of Holocaust survivors, with deep, moving characters and an enormous emotional charge.

Time Out

Although he writes about the Holocaust, Zimler focuses on their survival afterward in six magnificent narratives that are tied together by absolutely wonderful characters.

Diário de Notícias

Benni and Shelly Zarco, cousins who carry their guilt for having survived the Holocaust, are unforgettable characters (and) Zimler invests them with an extraordinary emotional depth.

Jornal de Notícias

A beautifully intricate and interwoven novel about how to go on living after the Holocaust – and most poignantly, about how to cope with the guilt of having survived. Zimler writes poetically throughout, and his extremely compelling narrative also serves to alert readers to current threats.

O Público

Richard's website is: www.zimler.com

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
149 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

gammyjill
5.0 out of 5 stars I will add my 5 stars...
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2011
Verified Purchase
to the other reviews so far of Richard Zimler's "The Warsaw Anagrams". A combination historical mystery, Holocaust study, and exploration of religious beliefs, it is most of all a love story set in Nazi-controlled Warsaw, 1940-42. The love that retired Polish Jewish psychiatrist Erik Cohen both generates and receives back in return is shown in his relationships with almost every character with whom he makes a connection.

Erik Cohen, who refers to himself as an atheist rather than a practicing Jew, moves into the ghetto set up by the German authorities in 1940's. A widower, his only child, a daughter, lives in safety in Turkey, and Cohen moves in with his niece, a widow with a beloved 8 year old son, Adam. At first Cohen and Adam - the old and young - find it difficult to share a room, but little-by-little, the two reach an accommodation and then acceptance. Cohen provides a stability to his niece and grand-nephew as little by little the Nazi hold on the Warsaw Ghetto proves tighter and more deadly. Both random death by violence and slow death by starvation are daily occurrences in the Ghetto, but life goes on for the survivors. Most people seem to have accepted the uncertainties of their current lives and for their futures. Things will/can only get worse for the ghetto dwellers as the Nazis begin to put their "Final Solution" into effect.

Young Adam, who runs with other ghetto children and does some smuggling of foodstuffs into the ghetto, is found dead after having gone missing. The beloved child's body was thrown in the fence surrounding the ghetto. He is naked and his right leg below the knee is missing. Erik and Adam's mother are heart-broken and Erik vows to avenge his great nephew's death and mutilation and goes into action trying to find who's responsible. He goes out behind the ghetto, into "Christian Warsaw", using both forged papers and a tale to find information from Polish Christians who may have been complicit in Adam's death, as well as the deaths of two other Jewish children found murdered and mutilated.

Dr Erik Cohen knows that he is an old man without much of a future. So little future, in fact, that part of the book is his return to life after being hung in a Nazi work camp, as an "ibbur"; a ghost or spirit. That return is to set down in writing the tale of his final days in the ghetto and in hiding after escaping the ghetto for a short-time freedom hiding on the farm of a brave Christian woman. But, as I wrote before, Erik's story is as much a love-story as an action one. He makes a list all the people whom he has loved in his long life, and it is a long list. He also connects with various Jews and Christians he meets who help him with his task of revenge. One of those old friends is Izzy, a watchmaker who is bisexual, who comes along, toting an old gun. I think the reader cannot help but feel the deep connection and love that Dr Cohen has felt and continues to feel for those in his life. He dies, but he leaves behind both a literary work and some reminders - the lives he's saved - from these awful, perilous times.
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R. Masilon
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story that almost emulates the play within a play Hamlet style.
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2014
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It took me a bit of time to realize that the 'narrator' was sometimes dead and sometimes alive. Other than that, it has a great plot and the characters are raw with angst and an unknown fate that is clearly planned with malice'
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Christine N. Ethier
5.0 out of 5 stars Just read it!
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2012
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The question of what it takes to survie in times of trial is a hard one. The question of what happened then and what happened to are even harder. The hardest, perhaps, is what happens after. This book offers answers to those questions. Set in the Warsaw Ghetto, prior to its uprising and liquidation, the book is part mystery, part deep thought, and all good.

In America, while we have our guilt over the second World War (Japanese/Italian/German interment), we also had it easier in the war's aftermath. Not just the question of rebuilding, but we never were conquered and had to deal with the Nazi threat in such a direct and viseral way. France and Poland, for instance, seem to have problems with the question of what happened then. Perhaps some of arises out of guilt, but the issue is still. If you don't believe -what about the Polish response to the movie Defiance? In some ways, Anagrams deals with this as well.

The full range and horror of German occupation is in this book, is felt by the reader, not only in regards to the "Final Solution" but in terms of what happened to those who weren't Jewish, just Polish (who were considered sub-human). All types of dangers are present.

The central character, Cohen, recieves aid and hinderance thoroughout the novel as he struggles to get to the heart of a series of gruesome murders. The description of life in the ghetto, however, is more horrifiying than the murders themselves, which don't necessary lack power, but whose emotional response lies in the burying of the dead. The setting of the ghetto, the dirt, the closeness, the despair, becomes another character. IN fact all of the settings become characters, for the reader feels the change when the character leaves. There is something different in the tone. It is subtle and that is why it works. It makes the book.

That and the book's brutal honesty. For the book is honest, but not judgemental (except in regards to one character). The book allows the reader to reach conclusions about the rightness and the wrongness of the actions, about evil, good, pity, faith, and love. It is such a multi-layered look at such an issue, white, black, grey - all are here.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

edward gabis
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2014
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a powerful and wonderfully written novel
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Cave Canem
5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable read, considering the subject matter.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2011
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I can usual tell how much I've enjoyed a book by the speed I read it, and I read this one quickly. It's easy to read, even considering the topic, and is well written, with nice interplay between the characters.

The story relates around Dr Cohen and his family and their trials and tribulations as they are walled into the Jewish Ghetto in 1940s Warsaw. When things don't seem as though they can get any worse, his nephew, Adam, is murdered and mutilated. Through his grief, Dr Cohen takes it upon himself to investigate the murder.

I don't want to go into the story too much and risk giving anything away, so I'll simply say that the characters are interwoven well and the story moves along at a decent pace. It's sort of uplifting, but rather dark as you would expect on the subject matter. However, it could have been darker, much darker, as I'm sure life in the ghetto at the time could have been painted as being a little more harsh. I can't even imagine how bad it may have been. However, if the author mad made it that much darker, it would have been a much harder book to read. Therefore, in balance, although he's has included some stark imagery of life there, he has weighed that up with making this a book which is easy to read. I think he's done a good jobb of it.

The only other thing to mention is the beginning few pages of the book, as it starts with an ibber, a ghost, telling the story, but after the few few pages, it all makes sense, honest.

As I said I enjoyed the story and meeting Dr Cohen and his friends and family and I would easily recommend this book to others.
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Spanner
5.0 out of 5 stars super
Reviewed in Germany on May 2, 2016
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thanks very much
one thing concerns me though - why are these library books which are maximum 2 years old already being sold on Amazon? Seems a tad dodgy frankly
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Moonlit
4.0 out of 5 stars The Warsaw Anagrams
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2011
Verified Purchase
I'm fast becoming aware that having a Kindle is a great way of getting to know new authors. The promotions by Amazon/publishers whereby books are sold at a low price for a few weeks is excellent. As an writer myself, I do worry that the amount received by the author is diluted because of this but hopefully it increases sales in the long run. Anyway, I bought this on a whim during a recent promotion and I'm pleased I did. Set in the Warsaw ghetto during WW2, it is partly a crime novel, with the protagonist Erik setting out to find who has murdered his nephew Adam and in the process discovering that other children have also been murdered. To his horror, it appears that someone in the ghetto has played a substantial part in these crimes. With his friend Izzy (a wonderful character - the sort of friend we all hope to have), he resolves to avenge these murders. More than that though, this is a novel which serves to remind us of the Holocaust.

The privations of life in the ghetto are very well described. You get a very clear picture of what it must have been like there: the lack of food, the poor sanitation, the crowded conditions as more and more Jews were forced to leave their homes and go to live with strangers (one of the Nazi policies for the ghettos was to force strangers to live with each other, not just sharing flats, but sharing rooms).

It is always controversial writing about the Holocaust and I imagine that there will be some who will heavily criticise this novel. Adorno famously wrote "After Auschwitz it is barbaric to write poetry" which has been taken by some to mean that it should not be written about at all. He was worried about people taking aesthetic pleasure in poetry written about the Holocaust and that somehow this might diminish the suffering of those who died under the Nazis. My own feeling is that as long as literature about the Holocaust is not prurient in any way, then it is something to be welcomed. One of the characters in the novel talks about the need for individuals to be remembered (I think it was Erik) and for me this is one of the most important purposes of such literature. With time there are inevitably fewer survivors to remind us of the atrocities of Nazi Germany and literature will have more of a role in helping us to remember.
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Chunky Monkey
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, thought provoking & sincere
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2011
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Warsaw Anagrams was the first book I bought on my Kindle based on the strength of some recommendations and I could not have chosen better. There are plenty of reviews that indicate the novel's themes and story, so I want to focus on why this should be amongst your library.

The Jewish ghettos are not often written about in this context or, indeed, focussed on in museums and exhibitions; much of these tend to talk about the restrictions to lives and, latterly, being imprisoned in camps. Richard Zimler's novel made me more aware of the possible conditions inside such a ghetto and the survival of its people within such a claustrophobic place.

For me, the style of writing also falls into a similar category as The Book Thief (I've reviewed this previously) due to its story telling perspective and focussing on the people and circumstances rather than the global politics of the time. However, this is very much a book for adults.

Importantly, it is wonderfully written and allowed me to paint a vivid landscape of the people, places and difficult circumstances of the time; it also reflects the juxtaposition with that of the rest of Warsaw and The Before Time.

I was also enthralled by the clever weave of what is, essentially, a crime novel (murder mystery) with the horrible historical events of the 1930s & 1940s.

At the price I paid for the Kindle version, this was great value for money and I look forward to reading more of this author's work.
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