Paul Goldberg Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Paul Goldberg is an American author that writes novels inspired by his personal experiences as a child in Moscow and the stories he reads in the newspapers.

+Biography

Paul Goldberg’s name is most commonly associated with ‘The Yid’, his debut novel which was published in 2016. In 1953, Joseph Stalin died. The dictator was on the verge of initiating a program that would see all the Jews in the country eliminated.

His death couldn’t have come at a better time. And the event has a special place in Paul’s heart primarily because his parents were on the list of people that Stalin intended to murder.

‘The Yid’ might have been Paul’s first published fiction novel but it was not his first published book. The author had produced numerous nonfiction works by that point. This was after a life spent in the field of journalism, reporting on medical issues, specifically the field of Oncology.

Many a reader might even remember some of the pieces Paul Goldberg contributed to ‘The cancer Letter’.

‘The Yid’ stood out amongst the author’s many works not only because it was fiction but also because it tackled such sensitive subject matters. Goldberg was born in Moscow, and that is where he lived for so many years.

It wasn’t until he was fourteen that the author’s parents took him to the United States. ‘The Yid’ took readers back to the dark days of Stalin’s era and added a comedic spin to a story that saw Moscow’s government initiate raids which led to the arrest of Jewish citizens all over the country.

The book is a curious mixture of fact and fiction, utilizing fictional and historical characters. Goldberg was pretty old when the book was published, though it wasn’t actually his fault.

The author spent a decade trying to sell the book to publishers. The people Goldberg spoke to had issues with the author’s gallows humor and acerbic characters. Many a publisher told him that readers would struggle to relate to Goldberg’s quirky heroes.

The author stood his ground. While he made a select few changes, the book generally remained unchanged. Goldberg doesn’t believe that the publishers in question changed their mind. Rather, the times just moved on, so much so that the problems Goldberg’s critics had complained about in the beginning his fans were praising. Paul Goldberg has since cemented his place in the literary arena.

A lot of the stories the author writes are inspired by what he has seen and read. The transition from nonfiction to fiction wasn’t particularly challenging for him, despite what people told him.

As a nonfiction author, Goldberg frequently obsessed over the characters in his works and that proved to be a challenge. The author desired to dig deeper into the lives of his characters and the depths of their personalities.

The nonfiction genre did not permit him to do so. Goldberg initially wanted to combine fiction with nonfiction, taking the benefits and elements of a novel and injecting them into his nonfiction works.

But after a while, he realized that he would be better off simply writing a novel, and that is what he proceeded to do. Seeing as his first two nonfiction books were about the Soviet Human Rights Movement, it made sense that his first fiction book would tackle Stalin.

Paul Goldberg’s literary success has not taken him out of the field of journalism. He has continued to contribute articles to publications like The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

+The Yid

It is 1953 in Moscow. Stalin is just a week away from death. He’s pretty determined to eliminate what he perceives to be vermin from the Soviet Union. That means Jews, and that is problematic for Solomon Shimonovitch Levinson, an actor working for a Jewish theater company.

Levinson is an old man but he has fought in many a war. So the goons that are sent to arrest him in the middle of the night are caught off guard by his response to their assault. It isn’t long before Levinson is out and about gathering a team of professionals with whom he will finally bring Moscow’s tyrant down.
Aiding him in his efforts is a highly talented surgeon, an African American engineer and an enigmatic woman.

‘The Yid’ put Paul Goldberg on the map. Even though the book is based on historical events of a rather dark nature, there is plenty of humor peppered throughout, not to mention Russian and Yiddish languages.

The book picks up at a time when Joseph Stalin wants to arrest all the Jews and have them deported to Siberia. Levinson is an aging Jewish actor. The officers sent to arrest him expect to encounter a decrepit old man with no wife or children or really anyone to beg for his life.

Levinson, it turns out, isn’t quite as helpless. He launches a plot to kill Stalin with Frederick Lewis, an engineer from the United States, and Aleksander Kogan, a doctor who Levinson hopes will help him hide the bodies of the Soviet secret police officers he just killed.

+The Chateau

Bill worked for the Washington Post. But they fired him. Now it is 2017 and he has no money or prospects for another lucrative job down the line. When Bill learns of the suicide of a college roommate that had garnered quite the reputation in the world of plastic surgery he packs his bags and runs to Florida.

There Bill hopes to investigate the death and revive his career. Bill doesn’t count on his father Melsor, a poet and political dissident who sometimes makes a living as a petty crook.

Melsor wants to control a crumbling high-rise filled with Jewish immigrants. Melsor is determined to outwit the fraudulent board of the high-rise to get his way, and he is especially anxious to bring his son into his schemes, some of which are not particularly legal.

The Chateau is Paul Goldberg’s second novel. The book follows the exploits of Bill, a man in his fifties who loses his job when his newspaper decides to bring a few younger hires onboard.

Suddenly cash-strapped, Bill decides to investigate the supposed suicide of an old friend. There he gets entangled in his father’s business.