Ghost Runners

by Robert Rubenstein

In the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany, two Jewish-American Olympians, though fit and able, are not allowed to compete because of American anti-Semitism. What happens to Joshua Sellers when his American dream is shattered on his twenty-first birthday? Could this solitary, seemingly inconsequential event have altered, perhaps, even for just one day, the events to follow--the fate to be shared by millions? Ghost Runners points fingers at American corporate might. It wrestles with the demon of anti-Semitism and forges a way one heroic individual fights to overcome the inevitability of history. Ghost Runners is history with an edge.

232 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2010

Reviews

[Oana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A GREAT LESSON OF LIFE AND HISTORY
Robert Rubenstein’s book filled a gap in my heart and mind. Ghost Runners is captivating and thrilling, with strong characters that haunt your dreams well after you put the book down, with the individual collective and universal plan brilliantly touched upon.
But the importance of this book is in The Question. The Question the reader walks away with: Who is responsible for this tremendous injustice? The Nazis? Or is it the complicity of those involved with the Olympic team? Who is hiding behind the criminals, approving of their deeds, encouraging them and most importantly, supporting the agenda of National Socialism?
Someone is to this very day unpunished and Robert Rubenstein uncovers without hesitation the complicity of the American corporations.
But just who is duplicitous when it comes to race prejudice?
Is it any different today when the youth refuses to acknowledge the slavery issue: “We haven’t harmed anyone, we were not even born back then, never had slaves and this belongs to the past.”
Their indifference to say the least strikes me. We as mankind are our past. We need to know the past, just like we need to know our own selves.
Let us learn! Tremendous injustice occurs because it is not just one event, but a vile perception of mankind that is allowed to be nourished. That marginalization of the Jews is what ultimately leads to Holocaust.
Ghost Runners should be read by the young and old alike.
It is an opportunity to learn a great lesson of life and history, and to reflect upon collective guilt.

[Jen Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read Ghost Runners, I was not only moved, I actually felt as though I were being transported. Ghost Runners is a story about young men who want to compete, to run, to prove themselves physically and challenge the limits of their bodies in the Olympic games. Their physical obstacles are juxtaposed with the depravity of real, social barriers. The horror of the time, of the way people did (and still) treat each other due to ignorance and fear: the two factors that drive any sort of racism or classism, sets the background of a story about humanity and struggle that these two boys face. This book is a piece of historical fiction that shows the endurance and tenacity it took for these runners to exercise simple human rights, and as they risk so much; brave so much, they do, in no small way, change the world.

The care that Robert Rubenstein puts into portraying this story is evident. The delicate, zoomed-up portrait into these boys' lives is utterly transcendent and remarkably powerful. This is a book that will stand the test of time, as it confronts the endurance of spirit amidst the horrors that people can inflict when they attempt to dehumanize others. Ghost Runners tells a tale that has been waiting to be heard, that of actual runners Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, and in my opinion, this book should be taught widely, and read by everyone. If I could give it more than five stars, I would.

[Steve Lindahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started this book I knew nothing about the 1936 Olympics and the two jewish runners, Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman. I also did not know of Avery Brundage, the US Olympic committee leader who pulled those two atheletes from the American team at the last minute. The speculation is that Avery Brundage made his decision in an attempt to avoid embarrassing the Olympic host country, Nazi Germany. I researched the event while reading Ghost Runners to learn a little more about the event that Robert Rubenstein based his book on. It is a tribute to Rubenstein's that I was not only drawn in by the story, but was motivated to look into the facts behind it.

Robert Rubenstein has written the story of Bobby Gillman and Joshua Sellers who were pulled from this fictional Olympic team by Arian Bandage. Fiction is in many ways truer than non-fiction because writers of fiction are free to speculate about the powerful emotions behind the facts. That's what we readers get in Ghost Runners. Rubenstein has changed the names of some of his main characters so he can show their reality. They have strengths and weaknesses. They have relationships. They love their sport and they take pride in their heritage. By reading this account of the story I didn't just learn the facts, I was consumed by them.

In the book readers are taken from the streets of Brooklyn, New York to Germany via the Manhattan, a renovated cruise ship set up to allow the team to train while traveling. The training had its problems due to politics, partying, and sea sickness. But the team got where they needed to go. Once in Germany the story brings in famous names such as Leni Riefenstahl, who filmed the event, Joseph Goebbels, the German propaganda minister, and, of course, Adolf Hitler. On the American side there are athletes such as Jesse Owens and politicians such as FDR and Gerald Ford.

I've been reading a number of WW2 books recently. I'm glad I chose this one to add to that list. It's a wonderful read and a fascinating insight to that time.

[Julie Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Rubenstein's novel, Ghost Runners is a story about the extremes of racism during the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The author shows the horrors of anti-semitism amidst the Olympics and the masterful machines of propaganda in a Hitchcokian way, but with words. Rubenstein's brilliance is in showing the gradual buildup of racism and what it feels like for the runners who are cloaked in the ideals of the Olympics and in the false guidance, "not to talk about politics." It's as if by avoiding that which is unpleasant and which can't be discussed, then it would just go away. A naiveté history couldn't escape and which is as valuable a lesson then as it is now.

The more that the athletes, Gilman, Sellers, Owens and others ignore their leader's advice," not to talk politics, not to think politics," the more the racism becomes personal. Sellers, Gilman and Owens start off running for the Olympics, but ultimately they're running for humanity and for everything decent that makes us human. Each runner in this book readers' will likely identify and cheer on for different reasons. In Sellers I saw an athlete running for love, a sense of place and acceptance, and in Gilman I saw an athlete reclaiming his family's pride. With Owens I saw a compilation, a runner competing against a history of hate and facing it head on in Nazi Germany. Along the way Owens taught us dignity, how to hold your head up high no matter what and the meaning of true sportsmanship and friendship.

[Michael Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Rubenstein has done his homework and transformed meticulous historical research into a beautifully written fictional account of the only two Jews to make the 1936 American Olympic team.

Rubenstein transforms Olympic runners, Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman into fictional characters, Joshua Sellers and Bobby Gillman in Ghost Runners. He creates a rich historical backdrop to a story with deep emotional and political overtones.

Imagine being American Jews in the 1936 German Olympics. Imagine the anti-semitism. Imagine being fast enough to be in league with Jesse Owens. Imagine being removed from the relay team, betrayed by politics and alliances between American corporations and Hitler.

This story is a must read for all people who value studying the past to confront the present. All around the world people demonize others because of their race and religious beliefs. Anti-semitism is rearing its ugly head around the globe. The same kind of corporations that helped arm the Nazis before WWII are doing business with dictatorial regimes around the world.

Too often history is repeated, especially when people forget the past. Ghost Runners, by Robert Rubenstein helps to remind us of our past in a very compelling way.

I know it's been said before, but this story needs to be made into a movie. I highly recommend, Ghost Runners by Robert Rubenstein.

[victor fortezza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Rubenstein has made a smashing debut in historical fiction. Meticulously researched, passionately and imaginatively rendered, the reader is transported to the 1930's, a world in the throes of a growing madness. From Coney Island to Berlin, the stage is set for a story that has been largely neglected, perhaps because of the shame it casts on famous men and corporations. Two gifted young sprinters face an inhuman opponent, invisible yet powerful. This is a tale of betrayal, of racism and, ultimately, triumph. The emotions - anger, rage - are raw, palpable. Given the re-emergence of anti-semitism around the world, this book could not have been more timely. The prose and punctuation falter in spots, as is the case with many first novels, but the overall package is wonderful. All Things That Matter Press has issued another important work.
All they wanted to do was run.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the reviews will say it all. This is a story whose time has come. It begs for our attention to correct a wrong. There can be no statute of limitation on race hatred especially during the time of the Holocaust. Some say I wrote this book. My characters, Joshua and Bobby know better. They were faster than my pen. Only because they were held back from running by unclean hands does my pen tell their story. Anti-semitism is a slow poison that takes time to grow and greater time to heal. Let the festivities of freedom finally begin. Joshua Sellers has flesh, finally, on him.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book although I didn't love it. It is about two Jewish-American runners, Joshua Sellers and Bobby Gillman, in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games who are not allowed to compete. They are almost certainly about to win the 4x100 meter relay but are told by their coach they cannot run in Germany. This book is fictional but is based on the real events of the Eleventh Olympiad and the real-life men Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller. This book not only explores the courage and resolve of these runners but shows how far-reaching American anti-semitism was during this time.

[Jean Rodenbough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rubenstein's book is an in-depth study of that historic moment in 1939 Germany with the Olympics. I have written a lengthy review on Amazon, but will add here that this provides a fictionalized version of history that offers keen insights into the main characters who were central in the real life event. It is well documented and well written. A good read.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story about the 1936 Olympics-based on fact. Explore the hidden world of anti-semiticism in America!