At once a thrilling who­dun­nit, a mad­den­ing romance, and an invig­o­rat­ing plunge into his­to­ry, The Tsim­bal­ist is a tale of Jews and Rus­sians, depict­ing their com­pli­cat­ed friend­ships, their dan­ger­ous enmi­ties, and their illic­it loves, all seen through the eyes of Avrom, a bar­ber, musi­cian, all-around men­sch, and born detec­tive.

The year is 1871. The inhab­i­tants of Bal­a­tivke live in del­i­cate bal­ance until a young Russ­ian aris­to­crat is found mur­dered near the home of Kop­pel, a poor Jew. With the police unable to unrav­el the mys­tery of the aris­to­crat’s mur­der, and blame falling upon Kop­pel amid a ris­ing tide of anti-Jew­ish feel­ing, a des­per­ate Avrom attempts to pre­vent dis­as­ter for his com­mu­ni­ty by search­ing out the truth him­self.

Learn­ing as much about the peo­ple he lives among as he does about the slain Arkady Ole­govich Efi­movs­ki, Avrom finds that few are who they seem. But could one of his neigh­bors real­ly be a murderer?