E-Train to Masada

by Eli Silberman

E Train to Masada combines moral and political questions spanning 2000 years and three continents. Harry Lang, a rising star at a New York advertising agency in 1968, creates an award winning TV commercial that captivates a President of the United States who has become depressed and all but shattered by the Vietnam debacle. In an odd turn of events the young "Mad Man" is astonished at being drafted by the President to write his farewell address and is stunned by the leader of the free world's bizarre directive as to its content. Madison Avenue, Greenwich Village, Israel after the 1967 Six Day War, the Zealots first century struggle on Masada, plus Hollywood and Washington, D.C. intrigue coalesce as Harry shuttles physically and emotionally through space and time. His unanswerable events with implications for all humanity, the fusion of the personal and political, the risks and rewards of love.

267 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Mark A.R. Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a draft of Eli Silberman's novel E-Train to Masada a year or two ago. It's a book rich with scenes from New York City during the heyday of the Viet Nam war, the Civil Rights movement, the Great Society, and more. There's an ad man with a quest, a President with issues, a woman finding connections to things larger than herself.

And then there's Masada, both as it is and as it was.

And aliens.

And stuff happens. :-)

All in all, it was a draft that was bursting with possibilities, so I'm keen to re-read the novel in its final form and see what he's done with it.

[Ginya Eshom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was transported by E-Train to Masada, a terrific ride with stops in Manhattan, Roswell,New Mexico, Cleveland, Nazi Germany and Israel. A multi-plot novel neatly tied together by a questing hero I'll never forget.