Fagin the Thief
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION ● EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST NOVEL ● A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London’s most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.
"Fagin the Thief takes one of literature's greatest rogues and gives him a soul, a backstory, and a spotlight. Layered and clever, Epstein's story is as ambitious as it is deeply satisfying." --Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions for You
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob's whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.
Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London's highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protégé, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.
Colorfully written and wickedly funny, Allison Epstein breathes fresh life into the teeming streets of Dickensian London--reclaiming one of Victorian literature’s most notorious villains in an unforgettable new adventure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this magnificent retelling of Oliver Twist, Epstein (Let the Dead Bury the Dead) focuses on one of the original novel's most controversial characters, Jacob Fagin. The son of a thief, Jacob is raised after his father's execution by his seamstress mother, Leah, in East London. At 11, he glimpses a pickpocket at work and persuades the man to teach him the trade, at which he proves to be a natural. Leah warns him about the dangers, but he can't resist the chance for an income far greater than what he could earn at the menial jobs available to lower-class Jews. After Leah dies of fever when he's 16, Jacob makes his home in an abandoned building. Several years later, he takes in a badly beaten younger boy, Bill Sikes, and the two form a deep bond. By 1838, Bill has matured into one of London's most daring housebreakers. The same year, Oliver Twist, a minor character in Epstein's novel, arrives on Jacob's doorstep and joins his tribe of young thieves, whom Jacob manages as skillfully as he does the risk of arrest. The group's stability is threatened, however, by Bill's increasingly reckless burglaries and volatile relationship with pickpocket Nancy Reed. Epstein's Fagin, rarely admirable but surprisingly sympathetic, is an unforgettable creation, and her vibrant secondary characters and depictions of Victorian London add to the novel's power. Dickens's fans and critics alike will love this.
