Fic­tion

The Paper­cut­ter: Book 1 of The Split series

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2020
A deeply polar­ized and ungovern­able Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca has sep­a­rat­ed into two nations‚ the God Fear­ing States (GFS) and the Unit­ed Pro­gres­sive Regions (UPR).

Judith Braver­man, a teenag­er liv­ing in an Ortho­dox Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in the GFS, is not only a tal­ent­ed artist accom­plished in the ancient craft of paper­cut­ting, she also has the gift of see­ing into peo­ples’ souls‚ and can tell instant­ly if some­one is good or evil.

Jef­frey Schwartz has no love for reli­gion or con­for­mi­ty and yearns to escape to the free­dom of the UPR. When he’s accept­ed into an exper­i­men­tal pen pal pro­gram and paired with Dani Fine in the UPR, he hopes that he can final­ly find a way out.

As dan­ger mounts and their alarm grows, Judith embeds a secret code in her paper­cuts so that she and Jef­frey can tell Dani what’s hap­pen­ing to Jews in the GFS with­out rais­ing sus­pi­cions from the gov­ern­ment. When the three arrange a quick, clan­des­tine meet­ing, Jef­frey is final­ly faced with the choice to flee or to stay and resist.

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