Five Bullets

by Larry Duberstein

Every Jew who lived through the Holocaust had a story worth telling, but not every Jew has been inclined to tell that story. Such was the case with Karel Bondy, a rising young structural engineer in Prague when the Nazis invaded his nation and began preparing the fortress town of Terezin to receive his people. Married and the father of three when he was taken there (and from there to Auschwitz), he was alone when luck allowed him to fight back, first with the partisans and later the Russian army. And he was alone when after the war he came to America to begin a new life as Carl Barry. What these experiences did to a strong yet sensitive man caught in the grip of the 20th century s greatest tragedy is at the heart of this extraordinary novel. And because Bondy/Barry was not eager to share those experiences, we must rely on his inquisitive American nephew Lewis to ferret out the details for us--and upon author Larry Duberstein to weave their tales together, in all the horror and sadness and, more unexpectedly, the beauty and humor. Karel Bondy is an unforgettable character whose story will by turns shock, intrigue, and amuse you.

215 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2014

About the author

There will be more here soon on Larry Duberstein's extraordinary new novel Five Bullets, forthcoming in November. Mr. Duberstein is the author of 9 previous volumes of fiction, including The Marriage Hearse (New York Times New & Noteworthy), Carnovsky's Retreat (New American Writing Award), The Alibi Breakfast (Publishers Weekly starred notice), The Handsome Sailor (New York Times Notable Book) and The Day The Bozarts Died (BookSense Notable Book).

In his other incarnation as a human being, Larry is the father of three beautiful daughters, an accomplished woodworker and builder, an avid tennis and basketball player, and the person who walks Alice Brownstein, the wonder dog.

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On November 20, FIVE BULLETS will be published by Brimstone Corner Press. This novel about one man's experience of the Holocaust and its lifelong aftermath, has been called a "daring, elegant, introspective masterpiece" (Theodore Rosengarten) and "haunting as it is compelling" (Small Press Reviews). The protagonist Karel Bondy is "a memorable, complex character in a powerful story of war, survival, and healing" (Kirkus Reviews). Foreword Reviews adds that "each vignette of this one man's two lives is balanced on a foundation of masterful writing."

But don't settle for blurbs. Please visit the Brimstone Corner Press website to read these glowing notices in their entirety.

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wall separates Carl Barry from the people around him. It’s an invisible wall keeping the street’s grit and dirt on its other side, while revealing only the surface of the man. And it’s a wall that began in the hurts of World War II, in the peace of a private swimming place, and in the ceaseless death that hid behind gray smoke.

Larry Duberstein’s Five Bullets intertwines the stories of a young Jew from Prague and a successful but very private structural engineer in New York. But Karel Bondy and Carl Barry are the same, and passing years and pages reveal a story of tragedy and love, persistence and peril, all touched with truth to self and faithless hope.

Sweet romance, gentle humor, dialog that convinces completely, wonderful characters with space to grow from childhood to adulthood—though not all will be given the time—and a central tragedy like the elevator shaft of one of Carl’s unloved buildings; it all comes together in a tale that spans war, Holocaust, man’s cruelty to man, and the love that binds and unites us.

By the end of this novel, you too might look with damp eyes, wondering “if these were joyful tears for their love or tragic tears for all [you’ve] pretended not to know,” or maybe even tears for the randomness of it all.

Five Bullets brings to life the harrowing deaths of uncountable Jews, and the wounded futures of survivors. It holds loves and griefs of many kinds in glorious balance, makes history real, and allows the reader to see behind that wall, to the truth of true lives. It’s a truly wonderful read.

Disclosure: I was given a free copy and I offer my honest review.

[Anne]

A lovely, spare, poignant story.