The Jump Artist by Austin Ratner

The Jump Artist

by Austin Ratner

The Jump Artist by Austin Ratner is a prize-winning novel that tells an astonishing true story of injustice, survival, reinvention and fame against all the odds.

'Panoramic, arresting, breathtaking' Anna Funder, author of Stasiland

'Bold and wondrous' A D Miller, author of Snowdrops

Austria, 1928. A murder trial sends shockwaves across Europe. An unknown young man named Philippe Halsman stands unjustly accused of killing his father. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Thomas Mann are moved to speak out on his behalf. But as he fights to prove his innocence, a whole nation turns against him.

So begins an extraordinary journey - from courtroom drama and prison cell to bohemian Paris at its height and Europe on the eve of war - and an extraordinary act of reinvention, involving Salvador Dali and Marilyn Monroe among many of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. From tragedy and injustice to freedom and, eventually, to fame, this is the remarkable story of The Jump Artist.

'Compelling' The Sunday Times

'Brilliantly constructed' Guardian

'A remarkable work [that] documents a triumph of the human spirit over tremendous adversity' Harper's

'A tale of passionate commitment' New Statesman

'Lucid and atmospheric' Observer

'Absorbing' Sunday Telegraph

'Truly beautiful' The Scotsman

'Tremendous resonance' Publishers Weekly

'Subtle, moving ... has the pace and excitement of a legal drama' The Forward

Austin Ratner studied at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, having previously graduated from John Hopkins School of Medicine. The Jump Artist won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in 2010. It is his first novel.

Reviewed by jamiereadthis on

3 of 5 stars

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For weeks now I’ve been too swamped with work deadlines to even think about touching a book, and when I do spare a few minutes to pick one up, it’s for one or two pages at a time. That said (and said so this will mean more than it would with my usual reading habits): I read The Jump Artist in two days straight.

I’m not sure which is more of a page turner, the true biography of Halsmann or its necessary fiction. Fortunately, the two are so artfully and organically woven that it’s nearly impossible to tell which is which. All in all, it’s an ambitious and beautifully executed novel. It’s almost— can I even say it?— downright Dostoevskian.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 18 November, 2009: Finished reading
  • 18 November, 2009: Reviewed