David Schearl arrives in New York in his mother's arms to begin his new life as an immigrant in the ' Golden Land' David is hated by his father
- an angry violent man unable to find his niche in the New World
- but is fiercely loved & protected by his Yiddish-speaking mother An innovative multi-lingual novel Call It Sleep subtly interweaves the overwhelming love between a mother & son with the terrors & anxieties David experiences as he seeks to find his own identity amidst the cultural disarray of early twentieth-century America