Читать онлайн «The Elected Member»
Автор Бернис Рубенс
Norman is the clever one of a close-knit Jewish family in the East End of London. Infant prodigy; brilliant barrister; the apple of his parent’s eyes… until at forty-one he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia.
For Norman, his committal to a mental hospital represents the ultimate act of betrayal. For Rabbi Zweck, Norman’s father, his son’s deterioration is a bitter reminder of his own guilt and failure.
Only Bella, the unmarried sister, still in her childhood white ankle socks, can reach across the abyss of pain to bring father and son the elusive peace which they both desperately crave.
SPHERE BOOKS LTD
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc. )
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
First published in the Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1983
Published by Sphere Books in 1986
Copyright © 1969 by Bernice Rubens
All rights reserved
ISBN: 0-349-1302-21
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.CIP data available upon request
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover illustration by Ashley Potter
FOR RUDI
Also by Bernice Rubens
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
BROTHERS
A FIVE YEAR SENTENCE
1 SENTA TOMYLOVE
MADAME SOUSATZKA
MR WAKEFIELD’S CRUSADE
THE PONSONBY POST
SPRING SONATA
SUNDAY BEST
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Chapter 1
Norman Zweck dared not open his eyes. He turned over on his stomach, raised his knee high, stiffening straight the other leg. He slipped his toe into the division of the two mattresses, savouring the chill of the other side, the inherited side. Once it had been his parents’ bed. a vast seven-footer, mahogany.
