The Jump Artist

The Jump Artist by Austin Ratner is a prize-winning novel that tells an astonishing true story of injustice, survival, reinvention and fame against all the odds.

Panoramic, arresting, breathtaking Anna Funder, author of Stasiland

Bold and wondrous A D Miller, author of Snowdrops

Austria, 1928. A murder trial sends shockwaves across Europe. An unknown young man named Philippe Halsman stands unjustly accused of killing his father. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Thomas Mann are moved to speak out on his behalf. But as he fights to prove his innocence, a whole nation turns against him.

So begins an extraordinary journey - from courtroom drama and prison cell to bohemian Paris at its height and Europe on the eve of war - and an extraordinary act of reinvention, involving Salvador Dali and Marilyn Monroe among many of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. From tragedy and injustice to freedom and, eventually, to fame, this is the remarkable story of The Jump Artist.

CompellingThe Sunday Times

Brilliantly constructedGuardian

A remarkable work [that] documents a triumph of the human spirit over tremendous adversityHarpers

A tale of passionate commitmentNew Statesman

Lucid and atmosphericObserver

AbsorbingSunday Telegraph

Truly beautifulThe Scotsman

Tremendous resonancePublishers Weekly

Subtle, moving ... has the pace and excitement of a legal dramaThe Forward

Austin Ratner studied at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, having previously graduated from John Hopkins School of Medicine. The Jump Artist won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in 2010. It is his first novel.