A gripping story of survival against all odds, guided by the transformative power of love.

THE UMBRELLA MAKER’S SON
by Tod Lending
HarperCollins, Winter 2025
(via Harvey Klinger Literary Agency)

THE UMBRELLA MAKER’S SON follows the remarkable odyssey of 17 year old Reuven Berkowitz at the outset of World War II, whose family is sent into turmoil with the fall of Nazi bombs on their Jewish neighborhood of Kazmiereze. It is only a matter of time before the family’s umbrella making business, their apartment, their wealth and their dignity are destroyed by the Nazis. After a nighttime confrontation with an SS officer goes dangerously wrong, Reuven makes a harrowing escape from besieged Krakow to the countryside where he is taken in by a sympathetic Christian farmer and his demanding and antisemitic wife. From there, Reuven eventually journeys back to the horrors of the Nazi ghetto that Krakow has become in search of the young woman he has loved since childhood.

Tod Lending is an Emmy award winner and Oscar nominated documentary producer. This is his literary debut.