Contents
Preface xi
Map xvi
A Note on Dates and Terminology xviii
Cast of Characters xix
1. “Why Should I Be Afraid?” 3
2. “The Vendetta of the Sons of Jacob” 22
3. “A Certain Jew Mendel” 49
4. “Andrusha, Don’t Scream” 79
5. “You Are a Second Dreyfus” 104
6. “Cheberyak Knows Everything” 128
7. “Who Is a Hero?” 152
8. “The Worst and Most Fearful Thing” 179
9. “Yes, a Jew!” 204
10. “We Have Seen the Killer” 237
11. “Gentlemen of the Jury!” 259
12. “The Smell of Burning, Blood, and Iron” 291
Acknowledgments 313
Source Notes 315
Bibliography 351
Index 359
Edmund Levin is a Writers Guild and Emmy award–winning writer/producer for Good Morning America. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Atlantic, and Slate, among other publications, and was included in The Best of Slate: A 10th Anniversary Anthology.
“Levin’s subtle, multilevel book hits the mark everywhere the
author aims. The huge surviving dossier allows him to craft a
detailed true-crime story . . . . [This is] a compelling
recreation of an extraordinary clash of medieval and modern.”
—Maclean’s
“Every once in a while a writer encounters a story so compelling
that even when rigorously researched and historically accurate, it
can be shaped to captivate the reader. Levin has accomplished this
with A Child of Christian Blood . . . a must-read, particularly for
anyone with an interest in criminal law, legal history, and
infamous criminal trials.”
—Virginia Law Weekly
“Deeply researched and carefully argued, [this ] is the most
thorough, reliable, and readable book on the subject to date.” —The
Wall Street Journal
“Thorough, lucid, and on all counts admirable . . . A Child of
Christian Blood was researched almost entirely from primary sources
by Levin, [and] he has done a superb job . . . This may well be the
definitive book on its subject, and it is to be hoped that it finds
a wide readership.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
“Levin’s main task is to keep up with the intrigue and present it
in such a way that the reader never loses sight of the overall
impact. He does so splendidly. . . . A Child of Christian Blood is
a thorough and necessary account of the Andrei Yushchinsky murder.”
—Forward
“Meticulous and utterly absorbing . . . Thrilling and suspenseful .
. . A panorama of Russian life, full of villains and a few heroes,
reminiscent of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.” —Moment
“History buffs and scholars alike will find this detailed
examination of the case worth reading.” —Library Journal
“A Child of Christian Blood is at once a shocking murder mystery
and a fine work of social history. It is a strange and dark tale,
and Levin brings it vividly to life.” —Steve Oney, author of And
the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of
Leo Frank
“Levin’s detailed description of the trial and the events leading
up to it will likely leave contemporary readers as stunned and
horrified as many observers were at the time. This is a fascinating
and disturbing depiction of the blood libel and ‘a cautionary
reminder of the power and persistence of a murderous lie,’ one
that, Levin notes, persists even to the twenty-first century.”
—Booklist
“Good Morning America writer/producer Levin makes a century-old
murder case come to life in a suspenseful true-crime thriller that
had broad implications at the time. . . . [His] stellar re-creation
of the personalities and events places them into the context of
Russia during the last years of the tsar, and makes good use of
records unavailable before the fall of the Soviet Union.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This page-turning history/true-crime story surrounding the myth of
blood libel . . . is a perfect fit for the talents of Emmy
Award–winning Good Morning America writer and producer Levin. His
easy narrative style makes the book read like a novel [and he]
tells the story clearly, without provocative bias, while pointing
out how the entire world demonstrated their incredulity at the
absurdity of the entire episode.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A simply outstanding, totally gripping book, elegantly narrated,
deeply researched, and impossible to put down. It is a rare delight
both as a brilliant history and a suspenseful whodunit that also
refreshes a neglected though infamous story of terrible injustice
that we should all know about: the Beilis blood libel—the Tsarist
Russian version of the Dreyfus case.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore,
author of Young Stalin and Jerusalem: The Biography
“Long before O. J. Simpson and Amanda Knox, Mendel Beilis was the
most famous defendant of his time—the last Jew ever to be tried for
blood libel. Edmund Levin’s A Child of Christian Blood brings the
bizarre episode to life with passion and precision. It’s a
fascinating and cautionary tale, beautifully told.” —George
Stephanopoulos
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