The Crossing Point [antikvár]

Author s Note Every novelist has problems over and above the actual labour of creation. One of them is the perpetual worry as to whether, in creating his fictional world, he may not inadvertently have hit upon some combination of facts such as actually exist in real life. For any writer who is venturesome enough to embark on a novel with a specifically Jewish theme and an urban setting this hazard is immensely increased. The Anglo-Jewish community is a comparatively small, enclosed society. Though in the creation of characters, names, backgrounds, situations or even geographical locations I have taken every possible precaution to avoid the duplication of anything in real life, there is still the possibility, within such a restricted range, of invention coinciding with fact. One carmot check every name, every circumstance. . . . Let me say, therefore, most emphatically, that every character, every incident and every institution in this book is a pure creation of the imagination. Apart from references to such bodies as the Beth Din (which in this context are about as personal as would be a passing reference to the London County Council) the people, the establishments and the organizations together with the events which happen or are referred to within these pages, are absolute fiction. Whether they carry conviction on their own level—that of imaginative truth—is quite another matter. I can only say that I hope they do. gerda charles