Olympia

Drawing on imaginary outtakes from Riefenstahl's infamousfilm of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Dennis Bock weaves together the lives ofa family living in the shadow of history.

Olympia is the story of post-war German immigrants, as told by theirson Peter, born in the New World and raised in the sixties and seventies.

Though great figures and events of mid-century touch the lives of thisremarkable family, it is the private histories, the grand failings and smalltriumphs of Peter's family that remain etched in the reader's imagination. FromRuby's struggle to rise above her leukemia and her father's love of severeweather and killing tornadoes, to the saint who witnesses a miracle at thebottom of a drowned Spanish village.

Set against the backdrop of some of the most significant Olympic moments ofour times--the Nazis' stylish and sinister glorification of the Berlin Olympicsand the 1972 Munich hostage--taking in which 11 Israelis were murdered--Olympiaoffers a bold and refreshing perspective on the tragic relationship betweenGermans and Jews in this century.

Bock writes with insight and clarity in a breath-taking, beautiful prose thatsignals the debut of a brilliant new talent.