Skip to main content

Howl

Jacobson, Howard2026
Book
A pitch-black novel of obsession and pain about a headmaster grappling with world events and existential despair. A tragicomic portrait of one man's unravelling in an absurd, twisted world. In the aftermath of October 7, Ferdinand Draxler walks the streets of London in despair. Everything has changed - the sights, the sound, the spirit. He too is not who he was. Is he at the crossroads of history or is it just a bend in the cul-de-sac of his own gloomy nature? The son of a Holocaust survivor who accuses him of cowardice and the father of a daughter who sees him as complicit in genocide, Draxler fixates on bad news. He shouts at the television. He carries his own tin of paint to cover up graffiti. The staffroom at the primary school of which he is headmaster has become a battlefield of inflamed opinion he does nothing to quiet. His wife Charmian is a beacon of calm but even she isn't sure she can save Ferdie from himself.
Clear current selections
items currently selected
View my active My Saved List
0Items in my active My Saved List