The empire of the senses

the long version

"The sweeping story of the Perlmutter family opens with the moment when Lev, the assimilated, cultured German Jewish father at the center of this saga, enlists to fight in World War I, leaving behind his beautiful gentile wife Josephine and their children Franz and Vicki. Moving between Lev's and Josephine's viewpoints, Part I focuses on Lev's life-changing experiences on the Eastern Front, where he becomes involved with a local Jewish woman in the poor village where he is stationed ... Part II, which takes place in 1927-1928, picks up in Berlin when the Perlmutter children are young adults grappling with their own set of questions"--