Ira Jay Flushman

Kaatskill Magic Ira Jay Flushman

The year is 1949 when Latvian refugee Shlomo lands at Ellis Island. Set loose on the shores of Manhattan's Lower East Side, he eventually finds a job at Murder Inc.

Despite its unsettling name, Murder Inc. specializes in schlepping New York Jews up to the Kaatskill Mountains during the summer months. On his first trip, Shlomo picks up the enigmatic Mr. I-matchmaker, seer, and storyteller at the Neversink Inn-as well as a waitress and a man who describes himself only as a "seeker."

Traveling Route 17 through the Borscht Belt en route to the inn, Shlomo and his passengers realize the Kaatskills have a magic and mysticism all of their own...and not just in a figurative sense.

After a series of curious encounters, Shlomo's little band arrives at the Neversink Inn, where a final supernatural event awaits them in a magical stone chamber-offering insight and a moment that changes their world.

Part My Favorite Year, part Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Kaatskill Magic offers an imaginative blend of New Age mysticism, Jewish culture, and New York history to tell a tale at once whimsical and deeply spiritual.