Money Must Stay in the Family

The plot of Money Must Stay in the Family unfolds around the family matriarch’s last will, tracing the saga of the fictional Ottolenghis, an upper-class Jewish family from Turin. Beginning with their flight from Mussolini’s Racial Laws of 1938 to Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the story follows multiple generations across Rome, Paris, Tuscany, South America, and Jerusalem.

Blending fiction and memoir, Elkann avoids stereotypes and sociological categories, focusing instead on individual destinies. Through the interconnected trajectories of two families, he explores varied relationships with Judaism—belonging, estrangement, escape, and return—in a post-Holocaust world.

About the Author

Alain Elkann is an Italian novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is the author of fifteen novels, as well as collections of short stories, essays, and interviews. A regular contributor to La Stampa for over thirty years, he has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He serves on the board of the Italian Academy at Columbia University and has held cultural advisory roles, including Chairman of the Egyptian Museum in Turin and Counselor to the Italian Ministry of Culture. Elkann was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by the French Republic.