Mr. Rosenblum dreams in English, by Natasha Solomons

Jack (the former Jakob) Rosenblum "aspired to be an Englishman from the very first moment he and his wife Sadie disembarked at Harwich in August 1937." After fifteen years, he is a successful businessman still intent on completely assimilating and becoming more English than the English. When he is thwarted in his attempts to join a golf club near London because he is a Jew, he buys a rundown house in Dorset on property he intends to turn into the finest golf course. His struggles with the local villagers, the local gentry, and the local mythical beast, the Woolly-Pig, lend a great deal of comedy to this bittersweet story. His wife Sadie is unable to share his desire to assimilate, mourns her lost family, victims of the Holocaust, and bakes Baumtorten, multi-layered cakes "to make you remember." Their daughter Elizabeth, only one year old when they arrive in England, completes the transition her father so desires by becoming plain Elizabeth Rose. What's more English than a rose? A charming and rather more serious story than the comic parts would at first suggest. If you liked Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," you'll also enjoy this. 355 pp.