False Memoir May Find New Life as Fiction

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF, New York Times, January 7, 2009

Days after Berkley Books announced that it was canceling the publication of the memoir “Angel at the Fence,” after its author, Herman Rosenblat, acknowledged that he had falsified parts of his story, an independent publisher said it was negotiating to release the book as a work of fiction.

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In the memoir Mr. Rosenblat wrote that he met his future wife during the Holocaust, when he was a prisoner at a concentration camp in Germany and she would throw him apples from outside the camp. The book was canceled after scholars disputed the truth of that and other details. But York House Press, a publisher in White Plains, said it was in discussions to release the book as a work of fiction called “Flower at the Fence.”

In a statement on its Web site, aboutyhp.com, York House said, “We believe Mr. Rosenblat’s motivations were very human, understandable and forgivable.”