Sons and Daughters: A Novel, written by Chaim Grade, (translated from the original Yiddish by Rose Waldman). 704 pages. Pub: (originally 1989, re-published March 25, 2025) (Francie/Barbara
Description:
“It is me the prophet laments when he cries out, ‘My enemies are the people in my own home.’” The Rabbi ignored his borscht and instead chewed on a crust of bread dipped in salt. “My greatest enemies are my own family.”
Rabbi Sholem Shachne Katzenellenbogen’s world, the world of his forefathers, is crumbling before his eyes. And in his own home! His eldest, Bentzion, is off in Bialystok, studying to be a businessman; his daughter Bluma Rivtcha is in Vilna, at nursing school. For her older sister, Tilza, he at least managed to find a suitable young rabbi, but he can tell things are off between them…Originally serialized in the 1960s and 1970s in New York–based Yiddish newspapers, Chaim Grade’s Sons and Daughters is a precious glimpse of a way of life that is no longer—the rich Yiddish culture of Poland and Lithuania that the Holocaust would eradicate.
With characters that rival the homespun philosophers and lovable rogues of Sholem Aleichem and I. B. Singer…Grade’s masterful novel brims with humanity and heartbreaking affection for a world, once full of life in all its glorious complexity, that would in just a few years vanish forever.” Amazon
DCPL: not available.
MCPL: Book: 0 of 16 copies, 45 people on waitlist; eBook: 0 of 3 copies, 21 people on waitlist; Kindle: 0 of 3 copies, 21 people on waitlist.
Copies are available to buy on the Internet. Amazon Kindle is the least expensive, $14.99
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