Among gay readers, Lev Raphael is well known for his short story collection Dancing on Tisha B'Av and the witty Nick Hoffman murder mystery series. But Raphael has a whole other literary career as a chronicler of children of Holocaust survivors. The German Money crosses each of these diverse paths in Raphael's writing to create a gripping mystery set in a German-American Jewish family with a small queer twist.
Paul has spent most of his adult life avoiding his family. But because of his mother's death, he must return to Manhattan to his bisexual cab-driving brother and his dramatic, bitchy sister. It is there that he learns he is to be the recipient of his mother's "German Money." This is the cash paid by the German government as reparations for the hell they put Jews, gypsies, gays and so many different people through in WWII.
Each of the siblings has adjustment problems. While Paul has completely avoided his family, his bi brother got screwed on drugs and drifts from job to job. His sister Dina married a rich, nasty man in Montreal and became rich and nasty herself. When Paul goes to NYC, his memories flood him in their childhood apartment and something smells wrong with his mother's death. It's a gripping evocative story that deserves a gay audience, even though there really isn't much gay content.
