Alan Fleishman

Goliath's Head Alan Fleishman

GOLIATH'S HEAD tells of a search for courage and hope amidst crushing oppression. Avi Schneider is a Jewish boy growing up in Russia on the eve of early-twentieth-century revolution. He is nine years old when he meets his own personal devil, Viktor Askinov, a brutal youngster who relishes tormenting Jews. In the following years, Avi is the object of his tormentor's obsession. Fourteen years later in 1905 the Tsar instigates riots - pogroms - against the poor, teeming Jewish villages. Now a husband and father, Avi takes to the barricades to defend his village from the mob coming to kill the men, rape the women, and burn down his village. Armed, he again faces Viktor Askinov, who is leading the mob. But he has been warned that if he kills Viktor Askinov, he puts his beautiful young wife Sara and newborn son Itzhak in deadly peril. Avi must decide this night what he stands for. Is it survival at any cost, for himself and those he loves? Or is it righteous vengeance for his people?