New Book Explores Life and Death of Controversial Writer

New York, July 30, 2015 (Newswire.com) - “Koestler was as well known in London as Jean-Paul Sartre was in Paris. He was the author of many essays, memoirs, and novels, including Darkness at Noon, judged by many to be one of the most important books of the twentieth century. He had also penned The God That Failed, a memoir of Communist faith and disillusion. Critics claimed that Spanish Testament, his description of the Civil War in Spain and his imprisonment there, ranked with the war reportage of George Orwell. Later in his life, shortly before becoming prime minister, Margret Thatcher requested that Koestler pay her a visit.”

– Excerpt

An earnest…debut novel of ideas. This historical why-dunit…carries some real emotional weight

Kirkus Reviews

So why did he and his wife commit double-suicide one March evening in 1983?  Award winning short-story writer and poet Bernard Otterman takes readers on an exploration of life, death, love, and lust as he explores what happened one fateful night 32 years ago to one of the most controversial thinkers of the mid-20th century. Otterman’s illuminating novel, Self-Deliverance: The Death and Life of Arthur Koestler, fictionalizes how an investigation into the suicides of the prolific author, journalist and political activist Arthur Koestler, and his wife Cynthia, could have unfolded. It also dramatizes the most important elements related to life’s moving forces: love and passion.

At the heart of the book is a love story, not just of Arthur and his much-younger wife, but of the lead investigator Jack, in a long and increasingly loveless marriage, and Kristie, a world-class ballerina and the estranged daughter of Arthur Koestler. Rita, the assisting investigator, and Frankel, a journalist looking into the double-suicide, also develop a passionate, yet combustible, affair.

Otterman’s work taps into the heart of loneliness, isolation, and the pitfalls of marriage. His book is not so much one of romance, but of the mind games that unfold for the participants. Sex, love, and intimacy take on new meanings as the Koestler investigation deepens—and the role love plays in life and death is unearthed.

His insightful book raises many questions, including:

·         Why would a healthy 55-year-old woman end her own life?

·         Did an aging, ailing man that some saw as a selfish misogynist, bully his wife into suicide or kill her outright?

·         Are there limits to how far marriage can bring two people together?

·         At what cost should one follow through on their longings for another?

·         Are we meant to be with just one person?

·         How should we handle our aging days and confront end-of-life questions, including the use of suicide?

The author uses his book as a platform to examine, and both praise and question the highlights of a man’s life that included some extraordinary feats. Koestler, a journalist, prolific author, political activist, and an explorer of a far-ranging list of topics, from sexuality to ESP, is best remembered for his anti-Communist manifesto, Darkest at Noon. A Jew who escaped the Holocaust, Koestler was also an adamant Zionist in his youth and an outspoken critic of fascism and Communism. A man of many causes, he campaigned against capital punishment and championed a group that supported euthanasia. But the 20th century philosopher was also saddled with baggage, accused of being a sexist, an adulterer, and an absent father. Otterman’s book provides an honest look at a man who had heroic characteristics and human flaws.

Otterman, himself a writer and child Holocaust survivor, uses different vehicles to solve the mystery of the real life Koestler suicides, including diary excerpts, suicide notes, media accounts, and witness testimonies. The reader follows the investigation as it gets complicated by the love and affairs developed between the book’s characters. In fact, the investigators seem to come to really know Koestler through the prism of their new conquests. As they examine Koestler’s world, they place their own relationships under a microscope.

The author’s anatomy of love is filled with numerous insights into the nature of what drives many of us, and as we come to learn about a fascinating figure like Arthur Koestler, we also discover important truths about our own selves.

Publication Data: Self-Deliverance: The Death and Life of Arthur Koestler by Bernard Otterman; Published by Liber Novus Press (September 2015); 344 pages; $13.95; ISBN: 978-0-9906747-1-9

Contact Information: Media Connect

Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 

Johanna Dickson 212 715 1559