Edward Lewis Wallant

The book offers a plethora of wildly diverse characters, including: a gay black jazz musician who moonlights as a gigolo; an ancient German Jew who lives alone in an unspeakably filthy apartment, drinking the days away; a pair of childless sisters who dote on their orphaned nephew, conspiring together to keep him ...

Sol Nazerman is a WWII Nazi deathcamp survivor. Now, he runs a pawnshop and takes refuge in misery and a bitter condemnation of humanity. When his assistant sacrifices his own life for the pawnbroker during a robbery, Sol is finally confronted with the inherent goodness of the human spirit.