THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHARKSKIN SUIT

(Ecco/HarperCollins):  

Then, in 1963 it is all over -- we see the family, in particular, Lucette's father, who is the central character, trying to weather the various calamities that befall them and barely surviving.  Expelled from Egypt like tens of thousands of other Jews, they leave the comfort of the Levant for a terrifying unknown world.  Their journey on a little cargo ship takes them from Alexandria to Greece to Italy and briefly to France.  After a sojourn lasting only a few months, they sail on the Queen Mary to America; when they arrive at the pier in Manhattan's West Side, it is snowing outside, and bitter cold.  Lucette's brother, Cesar, feels as if he is hallucinating -- he has never seen snow before.   They settle in a small street in Bensonhurst anchored by the newly-established Ahava ve Ahabah congregation, which she whimsically calls for the benefit of her American readers, the "Congregation of Love and Friendship" The little shul on 66th street becomes almost a character too. It is where Lucette's lonely, unemployed father goes every day, because he literally has nowhere else to go.  Unable to find steady work in America, he makes what he can selling ties on the subways of New York.  He begins to spend much his day there, praying, reading, and bonding with the friends he rediscovers from Cairo.

This is a well-written book, and Lucette chronicles every step of her father's tragic downward journey -- a journey that many of Jews will be able to identify with in its excruciating detail.

This is a must-read for psychologists, educators, historians, politicians -- anyone who wants to understand this vastly under-reported period which caused so many to suffer trauma and dislocation

THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHARKSKIN SUIT is a story about one family exile and one man's downfall -- it is in fact the story of the tragic exile of the entire Jewish community of Egypt.

Written in graceful, simple, easy-to-read prose, Lucette Lagnado makes you relive her past and your own as she takes you step by step through her family's bitter journey.

Regards,

Desire Sakkal

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JEWS FROM EGYPT
PO BOX 230445
Brooklyn, NY 11223

Fax 718-998-2497

email: info@hsje.org
=======================================================================
FROM OUR PREAMBLE
This organization shall be known as HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JEWS FROM EGYPT,
and not of Egypt or of Egyptian Jews, but FROM EGYPT for the purpose will be
to include all our co-religionists whose lineage have sojourned in the
Jewish Communities of Egypt.

The aims of this society are to preserve, maintain, coordinate the
implementation, and to convey our rich heritage to our children and grand
children's, using all educational means at our disposal to bring into being
the necessary foundations.
==========================================================================