The Tribe
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Salt Publishing
Published:11th Mar '26
Should be back in stock very soon
A Sephardic dynasty. A vanished world. Arditti’s most ambitious novel yet.
The Tribe chronicles a powerful Sephardic dynasty in the cosmopolitan city of Salonica during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, through the Nazi Occupation of France, to the early 1960s, when the survivors and their children confront their past, with long hidden secrets uncovered and deep-seated conflicts exposed.
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.
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 *Arditti weaves historical circumstance into a plot that powerfully highlights the ‘long reach of the past’.
-- Adam Sutcliffe * The TISBN: 9781784633646
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 38mm
Weight: unknown
528 pages