A Tale of Greed, Betrayal and Twisted Family Relations

Christoph Fischer is a high-ranking reviewer on Goodreads: #46 best reviewers #9 top reviewers. Just as importantly he is the author of two historical fiction books, Sebastian and The Luck of the Weissensteiners. I am greatly honored that he posted this wonderful ★★★★★ review on Goodreads and Amazon for my book, A Favorite Son:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, July 4, 2013 By  diebus - See all my reviews This review is from: A Favorite Son (Kindle Edition) "A Favorite Son" by Uvi Poznansky is a well crafted and superbly written re-telling of a Biblical story. The rivalry between Jacob and Esav about who is the favorite son. The competition between the two is an old theme and Poznansky does a brilliant job at bringing it into modern day experience and sensitivity. It is a tale of greed, betrayal and twisted family relations. Told from the perspective of the second born twin brother Yankle (Jacob) it shows his hate, insecurities, envy and desperation, yet we also see the mother;'s favoritism and scheming nature and the father's real thought as revealed on the death bed. This story is as valid now as it was back then. On a personal level the story worked incredibly well for me. I had been taught the story in Catholic Religious Education, which paid little respect to the Jewishness of the family and their culture. Poznansky seems to play with both ancient and modern themes, none of which are completely favoured, so there are references to kosher as a future concept as well as a present one. It also achieves to bring relevance to an old story, a wonderful illustration of what the story did and does tell us about families. The format of a novella was well chosen, the writing flows smoothly and comes to a perfectly timed end. I don't know if any biblical and theological sensitivities are being offended by this particular reworking of this story but on a moral and ethical level the novel had a powerful impact on me and I look forward to more of the same.