Philip Roth

In this alternate history Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to Charles A. Lindbergh unleashing a wave of initially subtle but ultimately violent anti-Semitism. The story is told by a young Jewish boy growing up in Newark, NJ.

Roth does an excellent job of portraying both public and family events through the eyes of a child. The political story, as sinister as it is, never overwhelms the personal story of the narrator and the shattering effects history has on his family.

Roth’s skill makes this a far better book than the typical alternate history, though I thought it ended too suddenly.