"The Lake on Fire is an epic narrative that begins among nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants on a failing Wisconsin farm. Dazzled by tales of the American dream, Chaya and her strange, brilliant, younger brother Asher stow away to Chicago. What they discover there, however, is a Gilded Age as empty a façade as the beautiful Columbian Exposition luring thousands to Lake Michigan's shore. The pair scrapes together a meager living--Chaya in a cigar factory, Asher by roaming the city and stealing books and jewelry to share with the poor--until each finds a different path of escape"--Page 4 of cover.
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