‘Amber is freighted with the weight of time and history.’
Five Amber Beads is the story of two men whose lives are woven together as they seek to discover the truth about their pasts.
Charley Bernstein works in the London art world and is tracing a family history erased by the Holocaust. In his possession is a diary written by a relative in a labour camp during the Third Reich, and Charley must follow the threads leading from its haunting pages to his own present.
In New York an old man, Christopher, is found lying semiconscious on the pavement. There are no witnesses to what has happened to him and he has no form of identification. When he wakes up in a hospital bed he finds he doesn't recognise the city or his own skin. In a state of total amnesia, he must embark on a struggle to regain his memory.
When fate brings these two men together they find themselves linked by a unique friendship. Their journey takes them from America to the Middle East and England in an enthralling and moving novel that addresses the nature of identity and belonging.
'Richard Aronowitz’s beautiful memory novel, Five Amber Beads
Donald Weber, “Anglo-Jewish Literature Raises Its Voice” (www.jbooks.com)
'Aronowitz portrays with elegance and thoughtfulness what it means to lose one's sense of self.'
Simon Baker, ‘A Choice of First Novels’ The Spectator, 15th July 2006.
'An impressive debut, which deals with the themes of identity, Jewishness and the legacy of conflict with immense skill and subtlety. Richard Aronowitz has a great future ahead of him.'
DJ Taylor, novelist, biographer and critic.
'... a fine debut novel that marks [Aronowitz] out as a writer with a singularly pictorial style. ... Where Aronowitz really succeeds is in dazzling the reader with startling imagery, sometimes using broad strokes to capture the world at war while in others narrowing his focus to human mannerisms with the precision of a draughtsman. ... One might wonder whether fiction has anything new to say about the Holocaust. Through his shimmering use of the language of art Aronowitz has shown that it has.'
Christian House, Independent on Sunday, 9th April 2006
Haunting extracts from the diary are interwoven skilfully with Charley's reflections as he and his wife accompany Christopher on a journey into the past. Familiar subject matter, perhaps, but the writer's distinctive poetic voice offers a welcome fresh perspective.
Rachel Hore, in The Guardian, 29th April 2006
Five stars for 'Five Amber Beads'
'... compelling debut novel ... It is perhaps because of Aronowitz's wise choice to draw on his own life experiences that he is successful in executing an enthralling and moving work of fiction which feels undoubtedly rooted in reality'
Rare Book Review, 27 February 2006
Richard Aronowitz's Five Amber Beads is another first novel, and a good one. ... [It] is as much autobiography as fiction - which is how it reads. Very effectively.
John Sutherland in the Financial Times, 19 May 2006 (at foot of page)
'An accomplished first novel about roots, identity and art. [...] brilliantly succeeds in bringing together the themes of identity with fascinating parallels between a nation and an individual's past and the needs to know one's roots in order to live. Beautifully written and movingly told, Five Amber Beads is well worth a read.'
'Aronowitz's style is descriptive and haunting, and though Five Amber Beads is a quick read, it does not have a neat ending.'
Jewish Book World, Winter 2006
.. a poetic novel based in the art world... "Five Amber Beads" is a first novel by Richard Aronowitz, a restitution specialist at Sotheby's in London The novel caught my attention because restitution of art confiscated by the Nazis during World War II has become a major area of interest as more works are returned to heirs, many of which subsequently come up at auction.
Mr. Aronowitz tells the story of a young art consultant's friendship with an older man who has lost his memory. The art consultant is an expert in determining if an artwork has been stolen by the Nazis, and in the book, he examines a work by Amedeo Modigliani for a New York dealer that he identifies as stolen. The character's mother was a Jewish refugee from the Nazis who came to England, and one of her few possessions was a necklace of five amber beads, which reflected the history of the family. Through the art consultant's research into his family, the importance of keeping a memory of the past comes graphically alive. Told in almost poetic language, the novel contributes to our understanding of the human need for restitution.
Wall Street Journal, Europe (29/12/06)
Five Amber Beads costs £10.99 and was published in April 2006.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-80-3
Five Amber Beads costs £6.99 and was published in November 2006.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-83-4
Richard Aronowitz was born in 1970 and grew up in rural Gloucestershire. He studied at the universities of Durham, Heidelberg and London and now works at Sotheby’s. His debut novel, Five Amber Beads, was published by Flambard in 2006 and his eagerly awaited second novel, It’s Just the Beating of My Heart, was published in March 2010.
His poems have appeared in The Guardian and The Independent, and are anthologised in Anvil New Poets 3. He is married and lives in Cambridge.
Website: www.richardaronowitz.com
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