Synopsis
Graham Anders is the very model of a Main Line Philadelphian, a graduate of Episcopal Academy and Penn Law with a well-born wife, a couple of kids, and a vacation house on Nantucket. But none of it seems to make him happy, including his work fending off a hostile takeover for a faltering locomotive company.
So when a chance arises to return to the scene of his youthful passion, he jumps at it. As a young American soldier in Austria after the war, Anders fell in love with a countess. Years later, the schloss that was once the venue for romance has become the “American Academy,” where Europeans learn about the American legal system (and one another). But things aren’t quite as they appear—and Graham must decide whether to risk all to expose the sinister doings beneath the mantle of virtue.
Alexander’s Feast is an irresistible tale of love, business and the Cold War, culminating in a mock trial that turns deadly serious. The book is one of four fine novels about the fictional Philadelphia law firm of Conyers & Dean by the late Arthur Solmssen, who was himself a prominent Philadelphia attorney. His family left Germany in flight from Hitler. As a young soldier he was stationed in his native land. And as a lawyer he took part in the real-life version of Anders’ “American Academy.”
Tivoli Books is proud to reissue all four of these works, which speak to modern readers about love, money, power and human nature in ways that few contemporary novels seem able to do.
Arthur R. G. Solmssen (1928-2018) was born in New York City to Marguerite and Kurt Solmssen, both members of prominent German banking families. Just two months later, the Solmssens took their new baby home to Germany and remained there until he was eight years old, at which point a reverse migration became urgent. Hitler had risen to power, and Kurt, whose father was at one point chairman of Deutsche Bank, had a Jewish background.