Lev Raphael

Discusses problems facing young people such as making choices, learning about and liking yourself, and solving problems.

From Amazon.com: The Nick Hoffman Mysteries Book 2 Chaos hits the State University of Michigan when two bitterly rival Edith Wharton societies are brought together for a joint conference. Its reluctant organizer, assistant professor Nick Hoffman, is desperate to get tenure, but things go from bad to worse to murder. There's never been an academic satire quite like this one or a sleuth like Nick Hoffman.

From Publishers Weekly: Tisha B'Av (the Ninth of the Hebrew month of Ab), which commemorates the destruction of both Jerusalem temples, is observed by fasting and public mourning. In the title story of Raphael's first collection, a gay student has been publicly humiliated in a university synagogue. Furious and frustrated, he lashes out at God and his own commitment to Judaism by dancing on the holiday. Raphael's characters, struggling to find identities as Jews, gays or children of Holocaust survivors, are angry, humorless and largely self-absorbed. Although message dominates plot in most of the tales, when the author permits personalities and events to play themselves out, he creates a more natural and sympathetic setting for his themes. In "War Stories," a remote, morose New York cab driver believes he is his family's sole survivor. When a cousin long thought dead enters his cab, he is transformed; he can finally break down and express his emotions. In "Abominations, " on the other hand, in which the characters in the title story are reencountered, Raphael errs into overemphasis: the torching of the gay student's dormitory room is compared by his sister to the Holocaust's conflagrations. Here as in other stories, Raphael forgets that people's lives can be interesting, instructive and important without the explicit ascription of cosmic significance. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: The 19 short stories in this first collection give the reader a glimpse of what it's like to be gay and Jewish, probing the problems encountered when trying to reconcile seemingly incompatible sensibilities. The author draws interesting parallels between the treatment of Jews in Europe before and during the World War II; several stories include concentration camp survivors parenting gay children, with each generation painfully aware of the discrimination and suffering experienced by the other. The title story begins with a sister admiring her brother's devotion to Orthodoxy, while refusing to confront his homosexuality; it concludes with his expulsion from his religious minyan, the torching of his dorm room by bigots, and her new understanding and sensitivity to another potential holocaust. Recommended. - Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland P.L., Cal. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Describes the lives of two orphan girls, one from the Caucasus who is sold into the sex trade, the other who is adopted into the wealthy Zane family of New York, whose unwitting involvement in the world of international crime precipitates their downfall.

From Amazon.com: "Lev Raphael is a daring writer—one who will not be restrained by genre, but who tells his story with all the tools at his command. The German Money combines all of Raphael’s estimable talents, delivering an emotional thriller about a totally believable contemporary family coming to terms with fifty years of silence."—Edmund White Best known for Dancing on Tisha B’Av, the groundbreaking story collection exploring the lives of children of Holocaust survivors, Lev Raphael is also the author of five popular mysteries. Now he combines his talents in a story of emotional suspense. Paul has spent his life running—from New York, the city of his birth; from his beautiful beshert; from contact with his own siblings; but mostly from his mother, a Holocaust survivor of inexplicable coldness. Upon her mysterious death, the children face shocking questions. What caused her to die? Why did she divide their inheritance so that Paul, the least favorite son, was singled out to receive the most, the dreaded "German money,"a bequest of a million dollars accrued from German reparations to survivors . . . a gift as cynical as it is generous. "Lev Raphael’s new novel is a powerful, haunting and erotic tale. The stunning narrative builds to a shocking -denouement and kept me turning pages faster and faster to learn the truth."—Linda Fairstein Lev Raphael is the author of thirteen books and known internationally as an insightful chronicler of the lives of the children of Holocaust survivors. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in two dozen anthologies, including American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories. He is a book critic for National Public Radio and mysteries columnist for the Detroit Free Press.

From Amazon.com: When the mysterious Perry Cross is hired to fill a quickly created position at the state university of Michigan, teacher Nick Hoffman learns that his lover, writer Stefan Browski, shared a past with Cross, who is murdered shortly thereafter.

From Amazon.com: The Nick Hoffman Mysteries Book 3 Lust and Literature Academic politics turn steamy at the State University of Michigan when Delaney Kildare--a buffed, studly graduate student--starts making waves among the faculty. What's his story? What does he want? What will he do to get it? Amateur sleuth Nick Hoffman, an English professor, finds his career and his happy menage with writer Stefan Borowski suddenly threatened by the turmoil spreading around Kildare. Where does it all lead? Scandal and murder, of course. "Nick Hoffman mows does intellectual pretenders with scathing wit." The New York Times Book Review "A witty and devastating backstage view of college life." San Diego Star-Tribune "Darkly amusing...This is sneaky, subversive fun." Publishers Weekly "Elegantly skewers ivory-tower pretensions, petty politics, incompetencies, and hypocrisies...A delight for confirmed and new fans alike." Booklist "Surprising and deeply felt...Raphael's strongest work yet." Kirkus Reviews "A stylish mystery with an intimate look at the jungle of academia...Witty, impeccably written." The Mystery Review

From Amazon.com: Secrets, Lies, and Love A coming-of-age novel set in New York and Michigan during the Vietnam War era, Winter Eyes shows how the past controls and divides the immigrant Borowski family, and isolates their American-born son Stefan. But when Stefan comes to learn the terrible secrets at the heart of his family, that knowledge transforms them all and points the way to a happy new future for him, despite his doubts about his sexual identity.

When her notorious past catches up with Laine Tavish, proprietor of the antique shop Remember When, it's up to her and an enigmatic stranger named Max Gannon to find out who's chasing her-and why. The answer lies in a hidden fortune that will change Laine's life...