The Warsaw Anagrams

Set in the Warsaw ghetto subsequent to the Nazi occupation of Poland, the novel is both a noir thriller and exploration of the day-to-day heroism evidenced by the Jewish residents.

The review in the San Francisco Chronicle cited Zimler's novel as “one of the most important works of Holocaust literature” and author Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that it is “an unforgettable, poetical and original journey in to the mysteries of evil, decency and the human heart”.

The Warsaw Anagrams is narrated by an elderly psychiatrist – Erik Cohen – who has recently died and who has remained in this world as a spirit or ibbur.

The story he tells involves the murder of his beloved grand-nephew Adam, whose body was desecrated and left in the barbed wire surrounding the ghetto.

Shortly after that horrific discovery, a young girl's body is left in similar circumstances, and, Erik – along with his best friend Izzy – are forced to become amateur sleuths.