Kaplan's Plot
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
One of the most anticipated books of the year by the Chicago Review of Books, Debutiful, The Millions, Hey Alma, and the Orange County Register
“A gangster novel of epic scale.” —People
“A sprawling, funny, Jewish family saga. . . . Kaplan's Plot concerns Chicago, cemeteries, secrets and crimes, and the enormous gift of loving somebody for who they truly, imperfectly are.” —Boston Globe
Elijah Mendes was hoping for a more triumphant return to Chicago. His mother, Eve, is dying of cancer, his business flamed out, and he has nowhere else to go. So he returns to Chicago feeling listless and shattered, worried about how he’s going to help his mother despite their chilly relationship. He finds some inspiration when he discovers that their family owns a Jewish cemetery and that a man he’s never heard of, his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan, is buried in a plot there. With a new sense of purpose—and an excuse to talk more deeply with his mother—Elijah begins pursuing a family mystery of extraordinary proportions.
Elijah discovers his grandfather Yitz, Eve’s father, was a powerful gangster in the 1920s. She was ashamed and never spoke about him to Elijah. As secrets unravel, the past and present become intertwined, and Yitz’s story forces Elijah and Eve to bond in ways they never have before and begin to accept each other, not as who they wish they were but as they both are.
Kaplan’s Plot is an astonishing balancing act between the ruthless and the tender, the superficial and the truth, by a writer with tremendous promise.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first novel from Diamond (Searching for John Hughes, a memoir) weaves a rich tapestry of a Chicago Jewish family through the stories of a gangster and his 30-something grandson. Elijah Mendes returns in disgrace from Silicon Valley after his former business partners were caught misappropriating company funds. Back in his hometown, where his mother, Eve, has terminal cancer, he learns that his late grandfather Yitz Kaplan owned a Jewish cemetery. A rabbi has been trying to contact Eve about the property, which she doesn't want to talk about, fueling Elijah's curiosity. A parallel narrative reveals how Yitz travelled from Odessa to Chicago in 1909 as a boy with his brother, Solomon, to escape attacks against Jews in Ukraine. Searching for information about his grandfather, Elijah discovers from newspaper archives that a 14-year-old Yitz was charged with the murder of a "known hoodlum." Yitz was cleared of the crime, but the event marked the beginning of his rise in the city's underworld—a "little Oliver Twist," according to Eve. Diamond crafts an affecting portrait of the bond mother and son gradually form over revelations about the past, and the narrative is shot through with Elijah's intriguing meditations on his origins and what they say about himself. The result is a memorable tale of the American dream gone sideways.
