Naphtali is twenty years old when forced to leave his home in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn conclave where he grew up practicing the most stringent type of orthodox Jewish life, and is suddenly transported to Greenwich Village in 1970, which was also the year Carbon 14's half-life of 5730 was attained. How these two disparate facts coincide and meld together is the background to this five-volume series of novels ending in the year 2020. Alphabet City is a drug-ridden, poverty-stricken bastion of creative fervor and abstract depravity. For fifty years, Naphtali lives in Alphabet City, marries, has a child, and tries to change the world along with his Russian friend Boris and Iraqi compatriot Walid, who runs the coffee shop. Willow threads her way throughout the story, spanning decades, ending in Heaven. Alphabet City in Lower Manhattan is the purview from where fifty years of world history take on a spiritual perspective.
The Rebbe of Alphabet City-Part Three Naphtali's circle widens as Mara, the pretty cigarette girl, Walid, the Muslim coffee shop owner, and John, a Catholic do-gooder, are backdrops for Willow's return as Tamar. Naphtali marries and has a child of his highest aspirations. Secrets are explored as the world begins to explode when the two Trade Towers are attacked, and love is revealed. After the Cold War ends, a new war takes hold of the world, fighting the country less terrorists who burn like a flame without a wick, burning only for the sake of destruction. A tortured Naphtali wanders the streets of Manhattan, pondering the purpose of life and living.
