Coming Soon · A Debut Novel
a novel by Faith Elaine
At home he was Karl. On the sidewalk he was Charlie. A country was deciding which half of him to fear.
Be First to Read About the Book
DRESCHER
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The Book
Boston, 1941. Karl Drescher answers to two names: Karl at his mother's German table, Charlie out on the American sidewalk. Then the letters from Poland stop, the word German turns sharp as a blade, and a boy must decide whether he can hold both halves of himself, or whether he will try to disappear from his own name to spare the Jewish friend he loves.
A luminous novel about prejudice, belonging, and the courage it takes to refuse to let anyone become the worst word said about them.
"For the first eleven years of my life I wore the two names the comfortable way a boy wears two shoes, and I never once stopped to notice that the two of them did not match, or to wonder which of the pair was going to have to carry me on the day the ground turned bad." — from the opening page
For readers who loved The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See. Sweeping wartime fiction where history turns on a single, unforgettable life.
Read the opening chapters free in the library.
Don't miss the opportunity to be the first to read the book. Join the reader list!
Behind the Book
It is a story first. Drescher is written to pull you in and put you on that 1941 sidewalk, imagining, inventing, and taking liberties in service of the page you are on.
The world it lives in is real. The history behind the story and the questions it asks, about prejudice, identity, and who we become under pressure, are grounded in real research, even as the characters and scenes are imagined.
Underneath the story sit ideas worth carrying long after the last page, woven in so you feel them rather than get taught them. You are never pulled out of the story to be lectured.
About the Author
Faith Elaine is a practicing occupational therapist and doctoral candidate who has spent her career watching how real people actually change. Drescher is what happened when twenty years of clinical insight demanded a story big enough to hold it.
She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, a small pack of corgis, and a barnyard of goats and chickens who remain unimpressed by deadlines.
For Book Clubs
Drescher is built for the long conversation afterward: a discussion guide, behind-the-book notes, and reading-group extras will be available at publication.
Book clubs on the reader list receive the guide first, along with an invitation to submit questions for the author.
The Reader List
Cover reveal, first excerpt, publication date, and early reader copies. Everything reaches the list before it reaches anyone else.
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