Snow in August

PRAISE FOR PETE HAMILL’ SNOW IN AUGUST

In the year 1947 Michael Devlin, eleven years old and 100 percent American-Irish, is about to forge a most extraordinary bond. His new friend is Rabbi Judah Hirsch, a refugee from Prague. Here in Brooklyn, surrounded by tenements and the smell of hot dogs, Rabbi Hirsch enchants Michael with stories of ancient wisdom as Michael explains to him the equally wondrous world of baseball. Then the neighborhood intervenes — and only one thing can save them from the hate all around them. A miracle…

“Simply a wonderful story and well told.”

— Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe

“A beautiful tale of pain, evil, retribution, and hope.”

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Vivid… Hamill delivers… You can hear the sounds of kids playing stickball, taste the Communion wafers, and see Jackie Robinson stealing home.”

— Associated Press

“Once again, Pete Hamill shows us how marvelous a writer he is. This novel is a delight.”

— Peter Maas

“Lovely yet heartbreaking…. [A] moving story of a boy confronting morality…. In Michael Devlin, Hamill has created one of the most endearing characters in recent adult fiction…. SNOW IN AUGUST is a minor miracle in itself.”

— Hartford Courant

“Hamill is an effortless master at evoking a bygone era…. All [he] has to do is say ‘Shazam!’ and he brings to palpable life the streets of postwar Brooklyn and the prepubescent soul of a boy coming of age.”

— San Jose Mercury News

“Charming and affecting.”

— Miami Herald

“In this beautifully woven tale, Hamill captures perfectly the daily working-class world of postwar Brooklyn… Will thrill believers and make nonbelievers pause…. He examines with a cool head and a big heart the vulnerabilities and inevitable oneness of humankind.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brings a fascinating time and place to very real life.”

— Orlando Sentinel

“Hamill is as readable as ever… the time-warp element and terrific descriptions will appeal to many.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“With a mastery of language and imagery that has made him the journalist-editor-novelist he is, Hamill meshes several disparate works seamlessly, in lush colors.”

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“A godsend…. Only the hard-hearted could fail to be moved by this old-fashioned story about friendship.”

— St. Paul Pioneer Press

“Hamill blends fiction and fantasy to produce a masterpiece… in a book that comes along about as often as there is snow in August…. All of the elements strike a chord without coming across as clichés…. He has written a great American novel.”

— Winston-Salem Journal

“Delightful… endearing… absorbing… Hamill has written a telling episode of faith, a faith which professes that major or minor miracles might readily occur along the streets of ancient Prague or modern Brooklyn’s East New York.”

— Midstream

“Re-creates the Brooklyn of days gone by lovingly…. Hamill, the journalist, puts just the right amount of realistic detail into the time and place and characters to make this story burst with life.”

— Kliatt

“A TENDER NOVEL…. When it comes to evoking the sights and sounds of postwar Brooklyn streets Pete Hamill has no peer…. When you finish that roller-coaster last chapter you’ll wonder if the shade of Isaac Bashevis Singer whispered in his ear.”

— Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes

“STRONG AND SOULFUL — A WONDERFUL ADDITION TO A COMPELLING BODY OF WORK. Few are as good at evoking New York City’s life and heart as Pete Hamill.”

— Oscar Hijuelos, author of Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love