Max Gross

Max Gross is a former staff writer for the New York Post and the Forward and is currently the Editor in Chief of the Commercial Observer. What if there was a town that history missed? Such is the premise of Max Gross’ novel The Lost Shtetl (HarperCollins Publishers) For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol somewhere in Poland, existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, electricity, the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, and the divorcing couple disappears and someone is sent to the wider world to find them, the 21st century crashes down on the town. The existence of Kreskol makes headlines nationwide and the Polish government plans to reintegrate the town that time forgot. Yet in doing so, the devious origins of the town’s disappearance come to the light. And what has become of the mystery of the missing couple? Divided between those embracing change and those clinging to its old-world ways, the people of Kreskol will have to find a way to come together or risk their village disappearing for good. Publishers Weekly called it ” Lively and imaginative…. alternately reminiscent of early Isaac Bashevis Singer and a Catskills comedian. Gross’s entertaining, sometimes disquieting tale delivers laugh-out-loud moments and deep insight on human foolishness, resilience, and faith.”