Gypsies Don't Lie

GYPSIES DON?T LIE transports the reader to the Great Depression world of a heroic immigrant Polish mother trying to raise her two children among New York City tenements, where people with hopeful dreams are preyed upon by very real nightmares. In the tradition of Crane, Norris, and Dreiser, author Jan Merlin gives us an utterly Darwinian view of survival. The novel clearly and sensitively presents real people and their contributions to America and the national identity. This book serves as another Rosetta Stone to American immigrant experience. Not since "Call It Sleep" and "Angela's Ashes" has one work so encompassed the joy and despair of family life.