The Rat Palace
In this allegorical novel of the Holocaust, Polish author Bogdan Rutha presents a tale in which the protagonist, a young Pole, is drawn into the nightmare world that is the Jewish ghetto in the city of N. Drawn to the ghetto, first by his intellectual discussions with Dr. Glatter, a Jewish physician, then later by the beautiful Ada Capiez, the “angel of the ghetto,” the narrator becomes aware of the increasingly bizarre and dehumanizing milieu of the “Jewish districts” in Poland.
As the narrator resolves to enlist the aid of his friend, Tadeusz M., to rescue Dr. Glatter and Ada, he discovers the old physician's stunning secret.
The Rat Palace explores both man's inhumanity and redemptive qualities in a riveting Kafkaesque novel that will capture the reader's imagination in an unforgettable way.