The limits of love
Set in post-war London, The Limits of Love is an examination of the lives and tensions of several Jewish families. Otto Kahane, a Dachau refugee, his nephew, delicatessen-keeper Isidore, Ben the zealous Communist, Paul the reluctant Jew and his girl-friend, Julia--Frederic Raphael probes the characters and their shifting relationships with a touch at once clinical and sympathetic. His long, intricately woven novel displays the same gift for detail and dialogue that characterizes all the work of this talented writer.