Changes

|title=The Jump Artist

|sort=Jump Artist

|publisher=Viking

|date=July 2012

|website=http://www.austinratner.com

|summary=A fictionalised story of the remarkable life of photographer, Philippe Halsman. Wrongly imprisoned in Austria for murdering his father, this novel gets to grips with the complex psychology behind the man behind the images. Challenging but powerful.

}}

Austin Ratner's debut novel, ''The Jump Artist'', first published in the US in 2009, is a fictionalised account of the extraordinary life of celebrated photographer, Philippe Halsman. Born a Latvian Jew, as a young man in 1928 he was walking in the Austrian mountains when he saw his father fall to his death. This would be traumatic for anyone, but the issues were compounded when he was accused of murder by the Austrian courts in what was probably anti-semitic and certainly xenophobic in explanation. Philippe's second trial, the first failing potentially because his mother had engaged a Jewish lawyer, details the fundamental lack of evidence and shoddy police work behind the accusation.