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The Veil
Michael Tobin, author
Burdened by talents beyond his years, Jake Klein struggles to straddle two worlds: The golden medina of late 1950s America and the horror of his parents’ experiences at Auschwitz. Brilliant and tormented, he unwittingly drags his three childhood friends into his Holocaust distorted worldview.
On the surface, the tight knit foursome are poster children for the American Dream. There is Jake, a talented writer and fierce football player; Mike the baseball prodigy and Jake’s loyal best friend; Marisa the charismatic and budding actress with a soul that contains too much anguish and desire for a girl her age; and Angie the “quiet, pretty girl” whose intellect and compassion pierces Jake’s mask.
Then on Father’s Day Sunday June 21—the day that Jim Bunning pitches a perfect game—a young neo-Nazi shatters their certain futures after Jake humiliated him on the football field.
This tragedy shifts and defines the order of their young lives.
Reviews
Kirkus
Kirkus Reviews describes The Veil as an “artfully crafted tale of love, loss, and achievement amidst the reverberations of inherited trauma…Jake’s range of emotions is intensely realized, not only via his actions (and inactions) but through beautifully rendered representations of his literary output. Most impressive is Tobin’s weaving of the veil as a meaningful image and metaphor throughout the narrative.”
The Veil takes the reader on a journey into the heart of antisemitism, its impact, and response. And yet, it is very much a story of the transformative power of platonic, romantic, and erotic love to overcome the darkness of despair, self-hate, and hopelessness.
