Once We Were Brothers Author: Visit Amazon's Ronald H. Balson Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1250046394 | Format: EPUB
Once We Were Brothers Description
Review
"This is as compelling a story as you would ever want to read...This book is different in its passion and its presentation. It is worth your time and you won't be disappointed. Once We Were Brothers is a new look at an old story, and it will stay with you long after you have finished it." —Jackie K Cooper, Huffington Post
"The phenomenal triumph of lawyer-author John Grisham’s legal thrillers has spawned surprisingly few successful emulators; however, Chicago attorney Balson’s first novel, while featuring a young lawyer heroine, Catherine Lockhart, who sees her bar admission as a license to further justice, is no simple imitation of Grisham’s entertaining potboilers..., this novel is uplifting and moving, intelligently written and featuring historically accurate context and an unusual insight into human character and motivations. Highly recommended for all readers." —Starred Library Journal Review
"Balson does a number of things superbly: he crafts a highly readable plotline and makes great use of the Chicago backdrop…many will enjoy this gripping novel for its narrative drive and its emotional storytelling." —Booklist Review
"The author describes the atrocities of wartime Poland and the beautiful, eternal romance between Ben Solomong and his life, Hannah. Balson's first novel is hard to put down." —The Jewish Book World
"A legal thriller...a reader knows he's writing from the inside." —Chicago Jewish Star
About the Author
RONALD H. BALSON is a Chicago trial attorney, an educator and a writer. His practice has taken him to several international venues, including villages in Poland that inspired this first novel.
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- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (October 8, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1250046394
- ISBN-13: 978-1250046390
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
When I learned that my law school classmate, Ronald Balson, had written a
legal novel entitled, Once We Were Brothers, I knew that I just had to read it. If I
expected to read something along the lines of a Turrow, Grisham or Martini, legal
thriller, I was pleasantly surprised - it wasn't.
The story begins when Ben Solomon, an 83 year old retired city worker,
appears at the opening night gala of Chicago's Lyric Opera and puts a gun to the
head of Elliot Rosenzweig, an insurance magnate and one of Chicago's most
prominent citizens and philanthropists. We learn that the gun was unloaded and
Ben says that his motive was that he wanted to exposed Elliot as being an
impostor - that Elliot really was Otto Piatek, a former SS officer known in Poland
as the "Butcher of Zamosc". It was at this time that Elliot Rosenzweig declared
for the first time that he was himself a Holocaust survivor and definitely not an
SS officer. He then revealed his arm which bore a concentration camp tattoo.
Who would represent Ben? This crime was committed in front of hundreds of
people and Rosenzweig had been declared by the Mayor Chicago to be "Chicago's
treasure."
Attorney Catherine Lockhart, who was working for one of Chicago's major
white collar firms, made the "mistake" that many attorneys do, by answering her
telephone. She was asked if she could do a favor for a friend - words an attorney
hates to hear.
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