The Tribe

Synopsis

The Tribe is the epic tale of a family and its history and a family in history.

The Carraches are a powerful Sephardic dynasty in the cosmopolitan city of Salonica during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. After the Greek annexation of the city, they settle in France until, in 1940, the Nazi Occupation sends some into hiding, some into flight and others into camps. In the early 1960s, the survivors and their children confront the family’s past, with long hidden secrets uncovered and deep-seated conflicts exposed, even as the Eichmann trial forces the world at large to confront the full enormity of the Holocaust.

The Tribe crosses cultures and continents in its exploration of family, race, nation and empire. As the central characters journey from adolescence through early adulthood to late middle age, they experience first loves, political and sexual awakenings, artistic triumphs, religious pressures, marital struggles, dynastic rivalries, brutal persecution, resilience and liberation, before, helped by their children, they finally achieve a degree of reconciliation both with one another and the city of their birth.

Praise for This Book

‘A tremendous, ambitious novel, richly peopled and adroitly covering a great sweep of 20th century history. An enthralling epic.’ —William Boyd

‘How can such a grown-up novel be so readable and seductive? The Tribe is several kinds of admirable book.’ —Adam Mars-Jones

‘This is a marvellous book. What a story! It feels so effervescent despite the tragic end of some of its characters. I knew the story of the Jews of Salonica, but Arditti gives it flesh and blood and life. The Tribe entranced me.’ —Linda Grant

Reviews of This Book

‘A story of war, exile, emigration, secrets and marriage (happy and bad) unfolds. Michael Arditti is brilliant on the dynamic and traps of family life. The conversations, often fractious and occasionally affectionate, will be instantly recognisable to anyone with siblings. A fat, epic family saga that amply rewards the investment it will take to read it.’ —Antonia Senior, The Times

‘Michael Arditti’s impressive and immersive family saga begins in Salonica (now Thessaloniki) in 1911 and follows the fortunes of the wealthy, powerful Carrache family, who are part of the Sephardic Jewish community … Arditti proves himself to be a brilliant and sure-footed storyteller. He is able to establish place, character, politics and conflict in a few short pages.’ —Alice Jolly, The Spectator

‘I would also wholeheartedly recommend Michael Arditti’s The Tribe, the enthralling tale of a Sephardic dynasty in Salonica.’ —Martin Chilton, The Independent

‘An epic reading experience … ambitious … fascinating.’ —Susie Mesure, Prospect

‘The Tribe succeeds, and indeed triumphs, because its people feel real … No major character is a cipher, placed merely to convey an idea or detail – although it is a book full of ideas, and most marvellously rich in detail.’ —David Bennun, The Jewish Chronicle

‘Arditti’s most ambitious work in years.’ —Patrick Maxwell, The Big Issue

‘The three-generational family saga is a well-known genre, as is the Holocaust novel; here, Michael Arditti combines the two, and the effect is to produce a masterpiece of storytelling, and a novel of immense compassion … This wonderful book contains transcendent truths.’ —Alexander Lucie-Smith, The Church Times

Praise for Previous Work

‘Arditti is a master storyteller.’ —Observer

‘Arditti succeeds in creating fiction that is morally serious, moving and intense.’ —Times Literary Supplement

‘Anyone who is afraid that the English novel is sliding into a backwater of domestic anecdote should find their anxieties assuaged by the writing of Michael Arditti.’ —The Times

‘Thank God (maybe literally) for writers like Michael Arditti, whose invigorating novels dare to shake us out of our complacency.’ —The Spectator

‘Michael Arditti is a writer who takes risks. His material is always compelling and provocative, his techniques sophisticated and oblique.’ —Patricia Duncker, Independent on Sunday

‘Arditti writes exactly like Dickens. He demands participation from the reader in an era of detachment.’ —Scotland on Sunday

‘Michael Arditti has long been one of our bravest novelists.’ —The Tablet