The Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies and the Jewish Public Library is set to re-release The Rich Man, a novel written by Henry Kreisel in 1948. The book has been revised by Norman Ravvin and will be released in a new edition.
According to Ravvin:

This new edition of a classic Canadian Jewish novel tells the story of Jacob Grossman, a middle-aged immigrant tailor who travels from Toronto to pre-World War Two Europe. The novel’s action opens in 1935, with a striking portrait of Toronto’s working-class Spadina Avenue district. Kreisel’s narrative leap of genius is his depiction of Grossman’s decision to return to reacquaint himself with his family and his boyhood home of Vienna. Wearing a new white suit, an extravagance bought especially for the trip, he is mistaken for a rich man, and the charade he undertakes to maintain this image complicates an already difficult visit. Grossman finds Vienna transformed by the rise of Nazism and the slow, inexorable deterioration of Austria’s prominent Jewish community. Kreisel’s insights into the forces that would lead the world to war are uniquely revealing. His portrait of prewar Jewish life in Europe and Canada helps us better understand the oncoming Holocaust.

The re-launch will be Monday, November 13th, at 7:30 P.M., at the Gelber Conference Centre at 5151 Cote Ste Catherine Road. Tickets are
$5 for members/students and $10 for non-members. Ravvin will be on hand to discuss and sign the book. Several of the book’s scenes will be performed by professional actors.
Ravvin is currently the Chair of the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies at Concordia University.