"An earnest...debut novel of ideas. This historical why-dunit...carries some real emotional weight."
- Kirkus Reviews "Self-Deliverance is a novel that touches upon the historical and fictional/imaginative lives of its fascinating characters. Otterman writes with authority and elegance and this book has it all-desire, love, illness, intrigue, loss. Yet nothing here is gratuitous. The prose is descriptive and lovingly wrought."
- Martha Rhodes, Founding Editor and Director of Four Way Books
Arthur Koestler slouched in his living room armchair, dead with a whiskey glass in his hand. His wife Cynthia was found lying lifeless on the sofa, facing him. Two empty wine glasses, a jar of honey, and an empty bottle of Tuinal-a powerful sedative-stood between them on the coffee table. Double-suicide was suspected, but Westminster Court Coroner Jack Candrel was troubled. Why did Cynthia, twenty-five years younger than Arthur and in good health, kill herself?
A bold work of historical fiction, Self-Deliverance: The Death and Life of Arthur Koestler, explores the circumstances and unexpected consequences of the real-life Koestler suicides. At the heart of the book is a love story, not just of Arthur and his much-younger wife, but of the lead investigator Jack, who's in a long and increasingly loveless marriage, and Kristie, a world-class ballerina and estranged daughter of Arthur Koestler. Rita, the assisting investigator, and Frankel, a journalist looking into the double-suicide, also develop a passionate, yet combustible, affair.
Otterman's work taps into the heart of loneliness, isolation, and the pitfalls of marriage. His book is not so much one of romance, but of the mind games that unfold for the participants. Sex, love, and intimacy take on new meanings as the Koestler investigation deepens-and the role love plays in death and life is unearthed.
Author Biography:
Self-Deliverance: The Death and Life of Arthur Koestler is Bernard Otterman's debut novel. His award-winning short stories and poems have appeared in New Millennium Writings, Word/Slovo Poetry, and Jewish Currents, among other magazines and journals. And he has presented his work in lectures and discussions at universities and bookstores across the United States and Australia. Otterman, born in Poland, is a child Holocaust survivor. His prior writings, including Inmate 1818 and Other Stories (Liber Novus Press 2014), examine history's darkest hour-the Holocaust. The Jewish Daily Forward said: "Otterman's willingness to engage creatively with the metaphysical questions raised by the Holocaust should be applauded." For Martha Rhodes, Founding Editor and Director of Four Way Books, Otterman's "observant narrators see the world, as it is, surreal, yes, otherworldly, unbearable, and somehow wry."
At the age of three, he and his parents escaped Lodz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw by moving from ghetto to ghetto, only to be interned in several labor camps. Separated from his father, Otterman and his mother escaped the train line headed for Auschwitz, fled and hid for six months as fugitives in the Polish countryside until Russian troops liberated Poland in January 1945. His father was first sent by train to Auschwitz, then immediately moved to a work camp in Germany. He also survived, and the family was reunited in Lodz in September 1945 through displaced persons listings posted by the Red Cross. They lived in Germany until coming to the United States in 1951.
Otterman earned a PhD in natural sciences and served on the engineering faculties at Northeastern and Hofstra Universities. He resides in Old Westbury, New York, and more information can be found at www.bernardotterman.com.
