Black Saturdays

Ari, the novel’s first-person narrator, believed the worst was behind him. After fleeing communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, his family found a home in Hamburg's legendary Grindelviertel. Yet, upon his arrival, the neighborhood's once-flourishing Jewish life had been replaced by left-wing students dreaming of Israel’s end. By the 'golden decade of pop' in Munich in the 80s, the specter of old antisemitism seemed to vanish. Ari never imagined its return - not until October 2023, when Hamas terrorists, fueled by exterminatory rage, attacked Southern Israel. Since that day, Ari asks himself where this eternal desire for the annihilation of the Jews originates. This thoughtful, gripping, and deeply poetic novel offers the attempt of an answer.