Award finalist in National Best Books 2007,USAbooknews - Alexis, who grew up in Rwanda-Urundi, is the son of an Italian Jew and a beautiful mulatto woman. As a young adult, he now ponders over the complexity of his roots: African-European and Judeo-Christian (his mother was raised a Catholic). The author guides the reader through a progression of exciting and complicated episodes involving Alexis. With his American wife he will vacation in Israel, and that stay will be a turning point in his life. The past catches up with him, exploding with the images of one man's life kaleidoscope: the memories of his African years, colliding with the more recent images of Milan, the smells, the colors and the primeval beauty of the black continent, mingling with those of Italy, as well as with the violent feelings Israel stirs in him. In that dense and haunting atmosphere he will meet young Israelis, a Palestinian and Hans, a German professor, the nephew of a Nazi soldier who died during WWII. A new frienship will bind the young protagonist to the German professor, a friendship that could evolve into something larger, that could change the life of the two characters. Will Alexis finally reconcile himself with the conflicting parts of his identity? Will he feel more African or more European; more Catholic or more Jewish; or will his new environment help him find peace within himself, in spite of the country’s current dangers? The ‘mystery’ will unravel in the last chapter of this largely autobiographical novel.
PEN American Center - http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/170 Please join PEN in congratulating Albert Russo, whose recent book Shalom Tower Syndrome (Xlibris, 2007) was selected as a finalist in the Gay/Lesbian Fiction & Literature category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards. This novel, which was an award finalist in The National Best Books 2007 Awards, sponsered by USA Book News, is set, in Israel. It was published in the author's own French version in 2005 by Editions Hors Commerce, Paris, under the title 'La Tour Shalom'.
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