Читать онлайн «The Elected Member»

Автор Бернис Рубенс

Norman is the clever one of a close-knit Jewish family in the East End of London. Infant prodigy; brilliant barrister; the apple of his parent’s eyes… until at forty-one he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia.

For Norman, his committal to a mental hospital represents the ultimate act of betrayal. For Rabbi Zweck, Norman’s father, his son’s deterioration is a bitter reminder of his own guilt and failure.

Only Bella, the unmarried sister, still in her childhood white ankle socks, can reach across the abyss of pain to bring father and son the elusive peace which they both desperately crave.

SPHERE BOOKS LTD

Published by the Penguin Group

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Penguin Group (USA) Inc. , 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U. S. A.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc. )

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

First published in the Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1983

Published by Sphere Books in 1986

Copyright © 1969 by Bernice Rubens

All rights reserved

ISBN: 0-349-1302-21

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

CIP data available upon request

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Cover illustration by Ashley Potter

FOR RUDI

Also by Bernice Rubens

BIRDS OF PASSAGE

BROTHERS

A FIVE YEAR SENTENCE

1 SENTA TOMYLOVE

MADAME SOUSATZKA

MR WAKEFIELD’S CRUSADE

THE PONSONBY POST

SPRING SONATA

SUNDAY BEST

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

About the Author

Chapter 1

Norman Zweck dared not open his eyes. He turned over on his stomach, raised his knee high, stiffening straight the other leg. He slipped his toe into the division of the two mattresses, savouring the chill of the other side, the inherited side. Once it had been his parents’ bed. a vast seven-footer, mahogany.