New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004 A Mariner book. Minor crease to front cover; minor bumps to edges; signed by author "To Becky." "Set in the New York of hte 1930'2,...is a spellbinding, richly plotted novel brimming with intriguing characters. Orphaned at eighteen, with few possessions, Rose Meadows find steady employment with the Mitwisser clan. Recently arrived from Berlin, the Mitwissers rely on the auspieces of a generous benefactor, James A'Bair, the discontented heir to a fortune his father, a famous children's author, made from a series of books called The Bear Boy." - from the back cover

Synopsis

Cynthia Ozick is an American master at the height of her powers in Heir to the Glimmering World, a grand romantic novel of desire, fame, fanaticism, and unimaginable reversals of fortune. Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europe’s ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Rosie, orphaned at eighteen, has been living with her distant relative Bertram, who sparks her first erotic desires. But just as he begins to return her affection, his lover, a radical socialist named Ninel (Lenin spelled backward), turns her out. And so Rosie takes refuge from love among refugees of world upheaval. Cast out from Berlin’s elite, the Mitwissers live at the whim of a mysterious benefactor, James A'Bair. Professor Mitwisser is a terrifying figure, obsessed with his arcane research. His distraught wife, Elsa, once a prominent physicist, is becoming unhinged. Their willful sixteen-year-old daughter runs the household: the exquisite, enigmatic Anneliese. Rosie's place here is uncertain, and she finds her fate hanging on the arrival of James. Inspired by the real Christopher Robin, James is the Bear Boy, the son of a famous children's author who recreated James as the fanciful subject of his books. Also a kind of refugee, James runs from his own fame, a boy adored by the world but grown into a bitter man. It is Anneliese’s fierce longing that draws James back to this troubled house, and it is Rosie who must help them all resist James’s reckless orbit. Ozick lovingly evokes these perpetual outsiders thrown together by surprising chance. The hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past hopes and future dreams. Heir to the Glimmering World is a generous delight.

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Details

Bookseller: The Book Closet (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 001138
Title: Heir to the Glimmering World
Author: Ozick, Cynthia
Format/Binding: Trade Paperback
Book Condition: Used - Very Good
Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Paperback
ISBN 10: 0618618805
ISBN 13: 9780618618804
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2004
Keywords: Fiction
Bookseller catalogs: Fiction;
Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

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Bumps: Indicates that the affected part of the book has been impacted in such a way so as to cause a flattening, indention, or light...