The Credit Draper

In 1911, eleven-year-old Avram Escovitz is shipped off to Scotland by his mother to escape conscription into the Russian Army. Growing up in the heart of the Kahn family in the tightly-knit Jewish community in the Glasgow Gorbals, Avram discovers he has a natural talent for playing football. He dreams of turning out for Celtic - but war intervenes. He is sent to work with his adopted uncle, the orthodox Jew Mendel Cohen, as a credit draper, peddling goods on credit to the crofters and villagers of the Western Highlands. There, a chance encounter with a Royal Flying Corps pilot leads to fresh possibilities: setting up a new business venture and winning the heart of a crofter girl. But shaking off his Jewish roots is not so simple..."The Credit Draper", a beautiful and original debut novel by J. David Simons, is more than just an immigrant's story about the search for identity in an alien land: it is also a book about whisky, football and waterproof clothing.

ISBN 1906120250   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781906120252 (What's this?)   Pages 320 Publisher Two Ravens Press   Published in Ullapool Imprint Two Ravens Press   Height (mm) 216 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 138 Publication date 02 May 2008   Academic level General DEWEY 823.92

'This is a subtle, beautifully written story about a rarely touched subject. It unites two great literary traditions - the Jewish and the Scottish novel - without ever seeming to force them together. Sad but never sentimental, full of hardship but easy to read, The Credit Draper is a truly fine debut which heralds the arrival of a bold new voice in fiction.' Rodge Glass 'The Credit Draper is a rare evocation of an earlier genre: the immigrant novel. This tends to be one of two types: an examination of the immigrant's inner life and the changes wrought upon it by a new land and language ... or a bildungsroman ... in which the young hero gains the world but jeopardises his Yiddisher soul. The Credit Draper belongs in the second camp, adding a most welcome Scottish dimension.' Clive Sinclair, The Jewish Chronicle 'This novel has a ring of truth while bravely tackling themes that have uncomfortable echoes today.' The Scots Magazine

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Version	Price	Published	Edition
Paperback	£8.99	2011	2nd edition