Chaim Bermant – författare

Point of Arrival (1975) examines the experiences of the various immigrant groups – the Huguenots, Irish, Jews, Pakistanis – who have made their home in the East End of London. This was their point of arrival in a new country, and for many it was the only England they were to know.

Point of Arrival (1975) examines the experiences of the various immigrant groups – the Huguenots, Irish, Jews, Pakistanis – who have made their home in the East End of London. This was their point of arrival in a new country, and for many it was the only England they were to know.

First published in 1965, this novel asks you not to laugh: it''s Berl...Berl''s wife ran away with the gardener. Could you blame her? Berl is a little Jewish odd-job man who wanders around in a black serge suit, striped trousers, sandals and a black homburg hat with fungus growing on it.Berl''s a born victim.Always trouble. Crisis after crisis.As for now, the only thing that''s worrying Berl is maybe his wife will come back. "Hapless, Luckless, Feckless, Lovable, Indestructible and Stupendously Funny" -Daily Telegraph

I bring you up to believe that nothing is good enough for you, and you grow up to be good for nothing.Thus, Mrs. Bindle, on learning that Ben, her only-begotten son, has decided to be a Rabbi; what is more, a Rabbi in a small provincial town in Scotland. Her anxiety proves to be not unjustified, although Ben''s chosen career has its compensations-perhaps Helen, the promiscuous teenage daughter of his housekeeper; perhaps Simmy, the young wife of an elderly parishioner; perhaps the whole incident-prone pace of the pawky Scottish town in which this richly-human story is set.First published in 1965, Chaim Bermant''s third novel has all the wit, warmth and colour of its critically-acclaimed forerunners.

Part Bildungsroman, part hymn to the city of Glasgow, Jericho Sleep Alone is without a doubt the finest book written about the Scots-Jewish experience. From Bar Mitzvah to an unfulfilling teaching career, Jericho Eli Broock finds himself a perennial outsider and unlucky in love, neither his on-off affair with the flighty Ninna or his financially prudent dalliance with the homely Camilla coming to fruition. Will the sometimes oppressive aid of the Jewish community make all well in his world?

"Yes," as Cyril might say, "being old''s all right, once you get past the age of trying to be young." First published in 1966, Diary of an old man is a real tour de force. It covers one winter month in the life of an old man living in a tiny pension. The prosaic events which are recounted - keeping warm, finding accommodation, cooking, reading papers in the local library - conceal an extraordinary feat of imagination on the part of the author: Mr. Bermant''s concept of Cyril, his narrator, is so complete that this book is not only intensely moving, but is also a real contribution to an understanding of the human condition. It has become costumary for a sociologist to speak of "the problem of old age"; but until the "problem" is accepted subjectively, by individuals, it is an empty phrase. In this very unusual, often very funny book, Mr. Bermant strips the reader of all illusions, and shows just what it is to be old, and poor, and friendless, and yet not to lose a sense of humour or the will to live.

During the war, while others fought, Hesketh planned, as a chocolate manufacturer, to put an end to world strife: Inter-Choc, a world union of chocolate makers, would bring man closer to man - through his sweet tooth. But Hesketh is thwarted by two more powerful urges - chauvinism and sex, the former Gallic, the latter British, but both indomitable.