Kasper Mützenmacher’s Cursed Hat by Keith R. Fentonmiller
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The Mützenmacher family has been cursed to sell hats ever since their Greek ancestor stole Hermes’ teleportation hat in the fourth century. Kasper, however, doesn’t mind making hats, and he loves Berlin’s whiskey-fueled cabaret scene even more. But his carefree life of jazz and booze comes to a screeching halt when he must use the wishing hat to rescue his flapper girlfriend from the shadowy Klaus, a veil-wearing Nazi who brainwashes his victims until they can’t see their own faces.
Years later, Kasper falls in love with Rosamund, who not only lost her face to Klaus, but also may carry an intergenerational curse connected to Hermes’ stolen hat. She warns of Klaus’s plans for a night of terror once he’s collected enough faces. Kasper dismisses Rosamund’s warning as a product of her escalating mental illness, until the government reclassifies him as a Jew, Kristallnacht erupts, and the Nazis start transporting Jews to Dachau. Then Rosamund disappears, and Klaus steals the wishing hat.
America, however, will pose Kasper’s greatest challenge, as he must convince his wayward son and indifferent grandson that their lives depend on breaking the curse that has trapped the family in the hat business for sixteen centuries.
The newest episode of The Book of Life Podcast, hosted by librarian Heidi Rabinowitz, features an interview about Kasper Mützenmacher’s Cursed Hat by Keith Fentonmiller.
Listen to the podcast here: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2017/04/kasper-mutzenmachers-cursed-hat.html