Melting Point

In 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, as many on board have dreamt, but to Texas. They are led by Rachel Cockerell's great-grandfather, David Jochelmann, who belongs to a group of rebel Zionists impatient for an alternative to Palestine. Their motto: 'If we cannot get the Holy Land, we can make another land holy.' In a highly inventive style, Cockerell weaves together diaries, letters, newspaper articles and interviews to create a new form of non-fiction. Melting Point follows the Jochelmann family through two world wars, to London, New York and Jerusalem, as their lives intertwine with some of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. It is a story that asks what it means to belong, and what can be salvaged from the past. 'An ambitious and high-risk venture. Yet Cockerell pulls it off with verve. She handles her material with a maestro's touch' The Times 'Wonderfully vital and idiosyncratic, a model of how history writing can be made fresh' The Guardian 'Non fiction will be different as a result' Jonathan Freedland 'A truly radical book; radical in subject, radical in form. For the most tragic reasons, it could not feel more immediate; and yet it's fluid, fast-paced, hugely enjoyable' Andrew Marr

Rachel Cockerell