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In the King's Arms
Lily Taub is the brilliant, beautiful and headstrong American daughter of Holocaust survivors. Seeking relief from their traumatized world, Lily escapes to Oxford University, where she meets Julian Aiken — black sheep of an aristocratic English family. When Lily is invited to the family’s ancestral home over Christmas vacation, her deepening romance with young Julian is crossed by a shocking accident that affects them all. Julian must face the harsh disapproval of his anti-Semitic family, who consider Lily a destructive force, not only in Julian’s life, but to their own sense of order. In the King's Arms is a lyrical, literary novel about the healing possibility of love.
230 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2011
4 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Sonia Taitz
5 books30 followersSonia Taitz is a playwright, essayist, and author of THE WATCHMAKER’S DAUGHTER, a memoir described by PEOPLE magazine as “funny and heartwrenching.”
The book has been recommended by VANITY FAIR, KIRKUS, The American Library Association (which nominated it for the Sophie Brody Medal), and READER’S DIGEST, which put it on its “Can’t-Miss” List. Author/critic James Wolcott described the book as having “the beauty of a psalm,” adding that it should be immortalized on film by Steven Spielberg; CNN’s Mark Whitaker said that “Sonia Taitz writes with an artist’s eye and a poet’s voice,” and Academy Award, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Patrick Shanley (DOUBT, MOONSTRUCK) proclaimed: “Sonia Taitz has a good heart and an unmortgaged soul. Follow where she leads. You want to go there.”
Sonia’s previous work, a novel called IN THE KING’S ARMS, was praised and recommended by, among others, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and ForeWord Magazine, which placed her “among the best poets, playwrights, and novelists.” NEW YORKER writer and critic Jesse Kornbluth compared Sonia Taitz to Martin Amis, Evelyn Waugh, and Philip Roth (but with more heart), and JEWISH BOOK WORLD (the JBC Magazine) featured IN THE KING’S ARMS alongside Alice Hoffman’s novel THE DOVEKEEPERS as an absolute must-read.
Sonia Taitz is also author of MOTHERING HEIGHTS, featured in PEOPLE Magazine and covered repeatedly on NPR, CNN, CBS, as well as in a PBS special on “The Mystery of Love.” O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE quoted MOTHERING HEIGHTS as being “one of the best things ever said about motherhood,” and many of its key phrases have been anthologized, for instance by THE COLUMBIA BOOK OF QUOTATIONS.
In addition, Sonia Taitz has written extensively for THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE NEW YORK OBSERVER; she is now a featured columnist at THE HUFFINGTON POST and PSYCHOLOGY TODAY.
www.sonia taitz.com
Twitter follow @soniataitz
The book has been recommended by VANITY FAIR, KIRKUS, The American Library Association (which nominated it for the Sophie Brody Medal), and READER’S DIGEST, which put it on its “Can’t-Miss” List. Author/critic James Wolcott described the book as having “the beauty of a psalm,” adding that it should be immortalized on film by Steven Spielberg; CNN’s Mark Whitaker said that “Sonia Taitz writes with an artist’s eye and a poet’s voice,” and Academy Award, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Patrick Shanley (DOUBT, MOONSTRUCK) proclaimed: “Sonia Taitz has a good heart and an unmortgaged soul. Follow where she leads. You want to go there.”
Sonia’s previous work, a novel called IN THE KING’S ARMS, was praised and recommended by, among others, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and ForeWord Magazine, which placed her “among the best poets, playwrights, and novelists.” NEW YORKER writer and critic Jesse Kornbluth compared Sonia Taitz to Martin Amis, Evelyn Waugh, and Philip Roth (but with more heart), and JEWISH BOOK WORLD (the JBC Magazine) featured IN THE KING’S ARMS alongside Alice Hoffman’s novel THE DOVEKEEPERS as an absolute must-read.
Sonia Taitz is also author of MOTHERING HEIGHTS, featured in PEOPLE Magazine and covered repeatedly on NPR, CNN, CBS, as well as in a PBS special on “The Mystery of Love.” O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE quoted MOTHERING HEIGHTS as being “one of the best things ever said about motherhood,” and many of its key phrases have been anthologized, for instance by THE COLUMBIA BOOK OF QUOTATIONS.
In addition, Sonia Taitz has written extensively for THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE NEW YORK OBSERVER; she is now a featured columnist at THE HUFFINGTON POST and PSYCHOLOGY TODAY.
www.sonia taitz.com
Twitter follow @soniataitz
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 23, 2011
This is an amazing and beautiful novel with an intriguing romantic storyline. Sonia Taitz writes elegantly and passionately about a pair of lovers separated by ethnic and religious hatred. I found myself caught up in this book, and couldn't put it down.
December 22, 2011
What a beautifully written story. I don't know if my review will do it justice. Full review here: http://www.girl-who-reads.com/2011/12...
August 4, 2023
I adored this book - honestly one of my favorites that I've read in a long time. It's a lyrical masterpiece; so well written. The prose is lovely and really paints a picture of Oxford and the English countryside. I loved the relationships between the characters in the book, the topics it covered, and the imagery. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys good, vivid writing.
December 27, 2014
"In the King's Arms" by Sonia Taitz would seem to be the perfect book for me. It has received excellent reviews as a literary novel. Its setting in Oxford appeals to the anglophile in me, as does the premise of an American girl who is a fish-out-of-water in the storied English university. But as the book progressed, I couldn't help re-writing it in my head. So many opportunities for story-telling are left fallow and the characters become more absurd as the story goes on.
This summary contains spoilers. Lily Taub, our protagonist, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, leaves her home in New York to study in Oxford. There are a few scenes that set up her sense of isolation as one of the few Americans in the city. She is treated with rudeness and indifference by most students she meets until she encounters Peter, a quirky student, in a pub. Peter takes Lily under his wing, and through him she meets his brother Julian, who immediately captures Lily's heart. Julian is not a student because he did not qualify for university.
Peter invites Lily to spend the Christmas holidays with his family in Gloucestershire. His mother Helena has remarried a staunchly conservative businessman named Archibald and they have a three-year-old son named Timothy. Lily seems pretty clueless on how to be a good house guest. She is obsessed with thinking about the differences between Christianity and Judaism and completely misunderstands the nature of the Anglican approach to Christmas. She offends the family when she takes Communion at the Christmas service. The Kendall family's anti-semitism comes to the fore, and when Lily is left to babysit Timothy while the rest of the family goes to a long-planned New Year's Eve ball, a minor disaster occurs.
Lily is unceremoniously sent back to Oxford where she has nowhere to stay--the college rooms are being used by people attending a physics conference. Lily finds refuge in the home of Mrs. Dancer, a cleaner at the college. Mrs. Dancer is the most believable character in the whole book. Lily falls into a languor. She doesn't attend classes or tutorials. When she decides she is pregnant (no doctor visit), the options of what to do seem to overwhelm her. She decides to go home to New York, takes her trunk to be shipped, and then stays.
Peter gets the lead in an OUDS (Oxford University Drama Society) production and Lily attends the last performance. Julian is also there and decides to get blind drunk after glimpsing Lily in the audience. Lily sees Julian drunk and decides that this is farewell. Julian's family learns there is a baby coming and invites Lily to move back into their home. Julian goes to Dublin to interview with the legendary Abbey Theatre and is offered a position in the company. Now that he has prospects, he and Lily get back together.
Where to start with this disappointing novel. There are no descriptions of life in Oxford, no explanation of the system of colleges that make up Oxford, no sense of university life. This book could have been set at any generic English institution. Having spent just a few days in Oxford myself, I felt the total lack of descriptive setting. So if the author doesn't want to give us a setting, she should provide either plot or character. In these two areas I also felt things were missing. The plot is barely developed. A girl meets a boy, has sex, gets pregnant, drops out of school. There is no urgency or sense of tension. So that leaves character revealed by dialog and interior monologue. Ms. Taitz has written plays, so the dialog should shine. But instead we are given conversations between characters that have no spark of life and I cannot imagine any living person delivering. Many conversations border on the absurd. Lily is prone to interior monologues heavy with Jewish theology, not what you would expect of a 21-year-old American. I did like the interspersed chapters about Lily's parents experience during World War II. These gave far greater insight into their lives, and the effect on Lily's, than anything else in the book.
I will add one more criticism. The presentation of what it might be like to be an actor at Oxford, and an actor in general, is ridiculous. It trivializes the actor's craft and experience, implying that it is easy to get a lead part in an OUDS production (Julian gets cast as Caliban in "The Tempest" even though he is not a student, and he is so brilliant that is astounds people--it is the first time he has acted). Julian is hired by a famous theatre company without any experience and is able to support his fledgling family. All this is presented as probable because his dilettante father is an actor.
The rapturous praise for this novel lured me to read it, and I kept hoping that I would find what other readers saw in it. I am sorry to report that I did not. There are moments of luminous prose, but not enough to recommend it.
This summary contains spoilers. Lily Taub, our protagonist, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, leaves her home in New York to study in Oxford. There are a few scenes that set up her sense of isolation as one of the few Americans in the city. She is treated with rudeness and indifference by most students she meets until she encounters Peter, a quirky student, in a pub. Peter takes Lily under his wing, and through him she meets his brother Julian, who immediately captures Lily's heart. Julian is not a student because he did not qualify for university.
Peter invites Lily to spend the Christmas holidays with his family in Gloucestershire. His mother Helena has remarried a staunchly conservative businessman named Archibald and they have a three-year-old son named Timothy. Lily seems pretty clueless on how to be a good house guest. She is obsessed with thinking about the differences between Christianity and Judaism and completely misunderstands the nature of the Anglican approach to Christmas. She offends the family when she takes Communion at the Christmas service. The Kendall family's anti-semitism comes to the fore, and when Lily is left to babysit Timothy while the rest of the family goes to a long-planned New Year's Eve ball, a minor disaster occurs.
Lily is unceremoniously sent back to Oxford where she has nowhere to stay--the college rooms are being used by people attending a physics conference. Lily finds refuge in the home of Mrs. Dancer, a cleaner at the college. Mrs. Dancer is the most believable character in the whole book. Lily falls into a languor. She doesn't attend classes or tutorials. When she decides she is pregnant (no doctor visit), the options of what to do seem to overwhelm her. She decides to go home to New York, takes her trunk to be shipped, and then stays.
Peter gets the lead in an OUDS (Oxford University Drama Society) production and Lily attends the last performance. Julian is also there and decides to get blind drunk after glimpsing Lily in the audience. Lily sees Julian drunk and decides that this is farewell. Julian's family learns there is a baby coming and invites Lily to move back into their home. Julian goes to Dublin to interview with the legendary Abbey Theatre and is offered a position in the company. Now that he has prospects, he and Lily get back together.
Where to start with this disappointing novel. There are no descriptions of life in Oxford, no explanation of the system of colleges that make up Oxford, no sense of university life. This book could have been set at any generic English institution. Having spent just a few days in Oxford myself, I felt the total lack of descriptive setting. So if the author doesn't want to give us a setting, she should provide either plot or character. In these two areas I also felt things were missing. The plot is barely developed. A girl meets a boy, has sex, gets pregnant, drops out of school. There is no urgency or sense of tension. So that leaves character revealed by dialog and interior monologue. Ms. Taitz has written plays, so the dialog should shine. But instead we are given conversations between characters that have no spark of life and I cannot imagine any living person delivering. Many conversations border on the absurd. Lily is prone to interior monologues heavy with Jewish theology, not what you would expect of a 21-year-old American. I did like the interspersed chapters about Lily's parents experience during World War II. These gave far greater insight into their lives, and the effect on Lily's, than anything else in the book.
I will add one more criticism. The presentation of what it might be like to be an actor at Oxford, and an actor in general, is ridiculous. It trivializes the actor's craft and experience, implying that it is easy to get a lead part in an OUDS production (Julian gets cast as Caliban in "The Tempest" even though he is not a student, and he is so brilliant that is astounds people--it is the first time he has acted). Julian is hired by a famous theatre company without any experience and is able to support his fledgling family. All this is presented as probable because his dilettante father is an actor.
The rapturous praise for this novel lured me to read it, and I kept hoping that I would find what other readers saw in it. I am sorry to report that I did not. There are moments of luminous prose, but not enough to recommend it.
May 30, 2011
In the King's Arms by Sonia Taitz is an extraordinary book which combines the world of the heroine's parent's, survivors of the Holocaust, with Lily's life as an overschieving "outsider" invited to attend Oxford university. When she falls in love with the black sheep son of an aristocratic family--her worlds collide. She has to deal with his antisemitic family and find the faith to accept that love can bridge worlds and make a future that includes both. A literary novel with romance and ironic realism. Lily is an everywoman,a hard worker with talent, who has to deal with the entitled and hold onto her sense of values. And yet this is a light easy read.
May 31, 2011
I grabbed a galley at Book Expo, and can't tell you how much I love this novel. Sonia Taitz has a gift for describing every aspect of being a woman in love -- in this case, a cross-cultural affair that has major ramifications. This book reminded me of Jumpa Lahiri's THE NAMESAKE, and the best of Amy Tan.
June 3, 2012
I really loved this poignant, unique story. I like how lily's parents and their past haunt her - it's a fresh examination of the holocaust's effect, on the generation after. Peter was a darling character - crass and sarcastic and yet so loyal and compassionate.
May 4, 2011
Read uncorrected galley
December 28, 2011
Overall a good story - a little different, and maybe just not what I was expecting. I didn't particularly love the characters, but I didn't hate them either.
October 25, 2012
The prose was so lush that I practically had to eat chocolate while reading to keep peace between my brain and my mouth. The plot was not so fabulous; it wandered and never really came back.
January 13, 2012
Not sure what to say about this book...the writing is lovely, characters grab you but something was off. i would be interested in hearing what others have to say who have read this.
January 30, 2013
read this in one day. good story, it ended better than i thought it would.
Want to read
November 14, 2014 PS3620.A375 I57 2011
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews