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SUTZKEVER

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A wondrous book of tales of lost worlds.

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The best of Yiddish poet Sutzkever’s short stories, made available in English for the first time.

Avrom Sutzkever (1913-2010) is a giant of Yiddish poetry. He was an accomplished author who survived the Vilna ghetto and service in the Lithuanian resistance during World War II to become a major figure in Israel’s revival of Yiddish literature. He increasingly turned to prose in his later years as a means of grappling with his grief over the Holocaust. In the first story here, “Green Aquarium,” the narrator finds himself perched atop the titular structure, as all the dead people he’s ever known swim beneath him. In “The Gopherwood Box,” a man searching for a treasure in a war-ravaged city lowers himself into a well even though he can no longer remember where he first heard of the loot. The earlier stories are shorter and more enigmatic while later ones offer narratives that are more developed. “The Twin,” for example, recounts the tale of a man meeting a woman in Jaffa who tells him a terrible tale of defiance in one of the German death camps. A current of magical realism runs throughout the book as Sutzkever reaches for images appropriate for disruptive times. His skills as a poet are apparent in nearly every sentence, as translated by Berger, who gets across their richness and precision: “The fiery tail of the war was still dragging through the dead city, like a part of a giant prehistoric creature. The black sites of burned-out walls were besieged by clay clouds, as if the clouds were descending to rebuild the city.” It’s easy to see these stories, which use the surreal to understand the unreality of world events, on a continuum of fabulist Jewish writing that includes Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz as well as contemporary storytellers, such as Etgar Keret and Nathan Englander. Those who are unfamiliar with Sutzkever—or, at least, unacquainted with his prose—will welcome this addition to the canon of experimental short fiction.

A wondrous book of tales of lost worlds.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-73438-725-4

Page Count: 282

Publisher: White Goat Press

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

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MY FRIENDS

A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.

An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.

Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”

A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.

Pub Date: May 6, 2025

ISBN: 9781982112820

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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THE WEDDING PEOPLE

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.

Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

ISBN: 9781250899576

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024

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