Gabi Gleichmann

The Elixir of Immortality (translated from Norwegian) Other Press

(German: Das Elixier der Unsterblichkeit, Carl Hanser Verlag)

 

Ari Spinoza is on his deathbed and having no heirs, he tells us the story of his family, a family in which a secret manuscript and elixir is passed down from father to eldest son, generation after generation.

This is a Jewish family history entwined with European history from 1129 in Portugal to present day Norway. A vast panorama of fact mixed with fiction passing through Spain, Holland, Paris and the French Revolution, Germany, Budapest, Vienna, inquisitions, wars, and political intrigues, it is nearly impossible to put the book down and even after 670 pages (German version), I was sorry to see it end. 

 

Gabi Gleichmann was born in Budapest, grew up in Sweden and lives in Norway.