The House of Twenty Thousand Books

[Hannah]

Sasha Abramsky creatively uses the library of his grandfather to describe the dramatic history of the Jews in the early part of the 20th Century. The author’s grandfather interacted with the Talner Rebbe as a religious boy, then Isaiah Berlin, and then the socialists and finally the liberals of his time. The book collection of his grandfather, who was a rare book dealer and taught at Oxford, reflected the journey of not only his own life but of many intellectual Jews. One is left with a fascinating view of Jewish history and a desire to not only have met the fascinating man behind this collection, but a lingering wish to sit down and leaf through the books themselves.