"Gustav had been given the first name of the German carter who had picked him up in a crib abandoned on the side of a road. This had happened outside the small town of Ellingen, hence the surname. On the child's coat a note had been pinned that here was a Jewish baby, to be delivered to the Waisenhaus in Nuremberg."

Based on his mother's extraordinary family history, David Pryce-Jones's virtuosic novel tells the tale of the Ellingens, one of the richest and most powerful Jewish families in the Habsburg Empire.

Gustav will ascend from the poverty and obscurity of an orphanage to the pinnacle of Viennese society. His only child, Henriette, must cope with the challenges of innocence, wealth and succession. But nothing will prepare her, her son or her grandson for the cancer of Nazism when it spreads across Europe.

The Afternoon Sun is a vivid portrait of four brilliant generations and their Europe by a peerless observer who knew them as few others could. "Strength of will proves to be Gustav's real legacy to his family," wrote Booklist, "far outlasting his mansion, industries, and gold."