Review
"Elan Barnehama has given us a powerful coming of age story set against the tumult of the 1960s, the War in Vietnam, and the power of memory and Jewish identity in a family of Holocaust survivors. This is a beautifully rendered novel, populated by unforgettable characters in an unforgettable time. Barnehama is a literary craftsman at the top of his game. Superb."
-- Frye Gaillard, author of A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, an NPR Great Read 2018
"With nearly incandescent prose, Barnehama deftly stitches the reader's heart to his glowing characters, then gently tugs and tugs and tugs—"
Marvin J. Wolf, author of Abandoned In Hell, and They Were Soldiers: The Sacrifices and Contributions of Our Vietnam Veterans.
"A precocious adolescent boy comes of age in New York in the tumultuous late Sixties in Elan Barnehama's poignant novel about youth and friendship and social unrest. Barnehama deftly links the upheavals of the day to his parents' dark past as Holocaust survivors. The Vietnam war bleeds onto the streets, peril is everywhere, but so is hope. Escape Route is a celebration of friendship with a Sixties soundtrack and youthful yearning for a better world at a time when Dylan was pitching, with 'Hendrix at short.'"
- William Luvaas, author of The Seductions of Natalie Bach and Ashes Rain Down: A Story Cycle, the Huffington Post's 2013 Book of the Year
"Escape Route immerses the reader in 1960s New York City and its anti-war youth culture. Barnehama seamlessly weaves folk and rock music into the story, a soundtrack central to the characters' lives. It rings true to those who lived through it while introducing younger readers to a fascinating and troubling era with echoes in the present. Still, there is a gentleness to the narrative that captures the idealism of the time, and is above all a celebration of friendship and connection in the face of change. Though this coming of age story is written for adult readers, teens interested in the period will appreciate this exploration of family, faith, friendship, and first love." Historical Novel Society
Elan Barnehama's second novel, Escape Route, is an entertaining, fast-moving, well-written story about a small group of precocious teenagers in New York City in the late 1960s. . . I was not ready for this story to end. Always leave your audience wanting more. That's what Barnehama has done with this enjoyable, relatively short novel.
Bill McCloud, The Veteran, Vietnam Veterans of America
LITHUB, JUNE 2022, Looking for God During the Vietnam War: A Conversation with Elan Barnehama: In Conversation with G.P. Gottlieb on the New Books Network, " In It's 1968 and 13-year-old Zach is about to become a bar mitzvah. That's when his sister changes his life by switching his radio from AM to FM. Zach's family lives in Queens, and he's comfortable roaming the New York City subways, heading to the public library, the Metropolitan Museum, and all kinds of diners...."
--READERS' FAVORITE 5star review "The book made me think about the amount of trauma we inherit from those who came before us. It feels like it is not only from stories passed down but something fundamental in our genes."
From the Author
The 1960s raised a lot of questions, important questions. Many of us thought that flipping the decade to 1970 would provide us with clarity. Instead came the realization that we didn't have the answers. For that we needed patience. But, as the song says, we kept going and got by with our friends.
From the Back Cover
Escape Route is set in New York City during the tumultuous late 1960s. It is a coming-of-age story told by a teenager, Zach, a first generation son of Holocaust survivors who becomes obsessed with the Vietnam War and with finding an escape route for his family for when he believes the US will round up and incarcerate its Jews. Zach meets Samm, a seventh generation Manhattanite whose brother has returned from Vietnam with PTSD. Together they explore protest, friendship, music, faith, and love during a time littered with hope and upheaval around the globe.
About the Author
Escape Route is Elan Barnehama's second novel. His work has appeared in Drunk Monkeys, Entropy, Rough Cut Press, Boston Accent, Jewish Fiction, HuffPost, the New York Journal of Books, Public Radio, and elsewhere. He was a presenter at the 2019 Boston Book Festival, a Writer-In-Residence at Wildacres, NC, and Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, Fairhope, AL, and the fiction editor at Forth Magazine LA. He earned an MFA from UMass, Amherst, and a BA from Binghamton U. Elan has taught college writing, has worked with at-risk youth, had a gig as a radio news guy, and did a mediocre job as a short-order cook. He's a New Yorker by geography. A Mets fan by default.
