Who is this Angel Max? Born in 1866, he is an orphan, raised by rich relatives, educated and enlightened Jews. As a boy, he becomes obsessed with English and James Fenimore Cooper while his siblings get caught up in the anarchist/nihilist underground.

He comes to America, to New York, and stays with relatives, not on the Lower East Side but in a townhouse on West 11th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. A sound marriage and equally sound business ventures, in real estate, make the American dream immediately come true -- city and country homes, servants, carriages -- and, above all, speaking English at all times.

But there is the other side of the family -- revolutionary stepsisters, a crazed, violent half brother, an anarchist cousin -- none other than "Red Emma" Goldman herself. They are in and out of his life, and Max becomes an "angel" for the anarchist cause, a little out of sympathy but more to keep them at a distance. This ambiguity is splendidly rendered in a richly inventive novel filled with memories of a time past, of lives lived and imagined in all seriousness and with empathy and humor.