The Price of Escape
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A Jewish man flees 1938 Germany only to find a new and unexpected nightmare” in Guatemala, in this tale of dark humor and desperate suspense (Publishers Weekly).
In 1938, as Samuel Berkow’s tramp steamer from Germany approaches Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, he is full of hope that he will be able to find a family member and begin to remake his life in the new world.
But in this sweltering, chaotic, and hostile port town, he will have to face down many obstacles—including himself—before he can hope to truly escape . . .
“Unger’s sharp prose deftly conveys Samuel’s frustrations and confusions as he encounters characters like a troublesome dwarf, a volatile American fruit company manager, a crazed ex-priest, and a friendly telegraph operator who all offer help with one hand but uncertainty with the other.” —Publishers Weekly
“Evoking both Kafka and Conrad, Unger’s character study of a broken man in a culture broken by a ravenous corporation makes compelling reading.” —Booklist
“Unger’s tale utterly seduces with its mix of the exotic and the familiar.” —Toronto Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Jewish man flees 1938 Germany only to find a new and unexpected nightmare waiting for him in the sweltering heat of Guatemala in Unger's uneven latest (after Life in the Damn Tropics). WWI vet Samuel Berkow flees Hamburg, washes up in the Guatemalan port town of Puerto Barrios, and gets stuck there before he can make his way to the capital, where he'd intended to meet his cousin. Samuel is overwhelmed by the oddities of the local customs and by those who take advantage of foreigners. Unger's sharp prose deftly conveys Samuel's frustrations and confusions as he encounters characters like a troublesome dwarf, a volatile American fruit company manager, a crazed ex-priest, and a friendly telegraph operator who all offer help with one hand but uncertainty with the other. His departure repeatedly stymied, Samuel becomes increasingly desperate until he nonsensically commits a crime that both threatens to ruin him and sets the book on the path toward a disappointing denouement. But Unger does a great job with fish-out-of-water situations, as Samuel's travails sometimes Kafkaesque, sometimes Laurel and Hardy nicely pit his timidity against his growing desperation.
