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Snow in August
Snow in August
Author: Pete Hamill
Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an eleven-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. Snow in August is the story of that unlikely friendship - and of how the neighbor...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780316340946
ISBN-10: 0316340944
Publication Date: 5/1997
Pages: 327
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 26

3.8 stars, based on 26 ratings
Publisher: Little Brown Co (T)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Snow in August on
Helpful Score: 4
Suprisingly addicting book. Hamill transports you to a place and time when life was simple AND more complicated. A teen develops an unlikely friendship with a rabbi who is new to the States. Set in the forties, the two discover new worlds together and realize the real meaning of friendship.
reviewed Snow in August on + 45 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
11 yr old Michael Devlin (100% Irish), living in a post-war tenement with his widowed mother, beriends Rabbi Hirsch in 1940's Brooklyn. After witnessing a hate-crime, Michael is terrorized by The Falcons ~ a gang of youths doling out anti-Semitism and other harrassment. Finally, Michael finds he has to evoke the spirit of the golem to help him and his neighborhood.

Pete Hamill brings post-war Brooklyn tangibly to the page. He weaves a heartrending tale of human vulnerability and myth that I enjoyed and will look forward to reading more of his work.
Firefly avatar reviewed Snow in August on + 57 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed the writing - the history and the sense of wonder. The author takes you there.
reviewed Snow in August on + 117 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent story - fantasy and fiction - good and evil.
reviewed Snow in August on + 84 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A beautiful coming of age story about a young Irish-American Catholic boy who befriends a Rabbi, and teaches him about baseball, during the time Of the Dodgers in Brooklyn when Jackie Robinson was first accepted to the team. It is a story of learning, values, tolerance, & love.
Read All 27 Book Reviews of "Snow in August"

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reviewed Snow in August on + 2 more book reviews
Fantastic book; one of my absolute favorites. I've probably bought more than five as gifts for friends. That's where this will go as well.

Received very quickly and in excellent condition. Much appreciated.
reviewed Snow in August on + 3 more book reviews
Excellent, well written, with very interesting characters and story line. Explains various aspects of Orthodox & Kabbalah teachings. There is mystery, lots of emotion and even a story within the story of Jackie Robinson coming to the major leagues!
Both men and women will enjoy this book.
ol-blue avatar reviewed Snow in August on + 31 more book reviews
Hamill's writing is wonderfully engaging. The lead character, young Michael Devlin learns many lessons about grace found in diversity of cultures, how perceived outsiders can become your strongest allies. There is certainly pain in his lessons, but much to be learned and loved in this tale.
reviewed Snow in August on + 44 more book reviews
I loved it... and already passed it on to a friend. I am a native New Yorker and enjoy stories about "my" city. It helped that I had recently read two of this author's memoirs... gave me some background as to where this "fable" was pulling from his life and where he veered off into the fiction part.
This confluence of the various cultures in Brooklyn post WWII was fascinating to me.
I love his writing.
Handlebars avatar reviewed Snow in August on + 153 more book reviews
Set in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood in 1947, this tale revolves around an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch, a refugee from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi's stories of ancient magic and wisdom captivate his imagination and transport him to times and places even his beloved comic book heroes have never visited. For the rabbi, Michael's patient instruction on the language of baseball and American culture opens up an equally strange world.


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