Dreams Bigger Than the Night is a deft murder mystery, a nifty history lesson, an insightful moral fable, a captivating love story, and a terrific, fun book. A veritable who’s who of famous mobsters pirouette through a story that swirls around the campaign to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but we soon see they are not the real criminals of the years leading to World War II.
— H. Bruce Franklin, the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies, Rutgers University


Paul M. Levitt is a master at rescuing tales from the shadows of history. His exuberant new novel, superbly crafted and the result of prodigious research, is a luge ride through the 1930s world of Jewish gangsters, Nazis, Communists, Hollywood, and more. A mix of history and fantasy, Dreams Bigger Than the Night strikes off sparks of brilliance in a story told through dialogue that is racy, musical, and street-tough.
— Alan Wald, professor emeritus of English and American culture, University of Michigan


In Dreams Bigger Than the Night, Paul M. Levitt paints a caustic portrait of urban life in New Jersey in the 1930's, detailing how the conflicting sides of a stressed society are brought to a sharp point; from the recovery from the Great Depression, to the many immigrant groups striving for the American dream, to the rising gangster underworld, and the political-religious struggle over American participation in the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany.
— Berel Lang, professor emeritus of philosophy, State University of New York at Albany