1871. Cattle-dealer Solomon Meijer has made a reputation for himself as one of the few honest Jews in Endingen, a rare Swiss town in which Jews are allowed to reside. He leads a largely untroubled life, rewarded by his work and comforted at home by his wife and two daughters. But all of this is set to end when he answers a knock at the door in the middle of the night. On the doorstep stands his young distant cousin, Janki, half-dead and begging for refuge. The pitiful figure is invited in and given a coveted place in the bosom of the family, but when Janki recovers and regains his ambition and his fine-looks, he will change the Meijer family's lives for generations to come...
In the tradition of the great family romances of the nineteenth century, Melnitz is the saga of the Swiss-Jewish Meijer family, spanning five generations from the Franco-Prussian War to World War II. It is a novel of fate, fortune and great falls; a homage to the sunken world of yiddish culture and a celebration of the enduring spirit of biting Jewish humour.



![Kawaguchi, Toshikazu & Trousselot, Geoffrey Fiction in Translation Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, 1) [2019] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/kawaguchi-toshikazu-trousselot-geoffrey-toshikazu-kawaguchi-before-the-coffee-gets-cold-before-the-coffee-gets-cold-1-2019-paperback-57197187727699_{width}x.jpg?v=1726461663)
![Yuzuki, Asako Fiction in Translation Yuzuki Asako: Butter [2024] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/yuzuki-asako-yuzuki-asako-butter-2024-paperback-57196664455507_{width}x.jpg?v=1728994653)
![Harpman, Jacqueline & Schwartz, Ros & Mackintosh, Sophie Fiction in Translation Jacqueline Harpman: I Who Have Never Known Men [2019] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/harpman-jacqueline-schwartz-ros-mackintosh-sophie-jacqueline-harpman-i-who-have-never-known-men-2019-paperback-57178242679123_{width}x.jpg?v=1748872917)
![Allende, Isabel Fiction in Translation Isabel Allende: The Wind Knows My Name [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/allende-isabel-isabel-allende-the-wind-knows-my-name-2023-paperback-57037996032339_{width}x.jpg?v=1727227395)
![Ferrante, Elena & Goldstein, Ann Fiction in Translation Elena Ferrante: My Brilliant Friend: childhood, adolescence (Neapolitan Quartet) [2020] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/ferrante-elena-goldstein-ann-elena-ferrante-my-brilliant-friend-childhood-adolescence-neapolitan-quartet-2020-paperback-60045847265619_{width}x.jpg?v=1731559980)