Grandfather's Acres

by Isaac Metzker

Grandfather’s Acres is a novel that presents a mixed Jewish and gentile rural community in Eastern Galicia (Ukraine), at the end of the nineteenth century. An Orthodox Jewish family of farmers struggles with the hardships of daily life, tension with their alien neighbors and the changing moods of nationalism and enlightenment that are sweeping through the countryside. Moments of sorrow and those of happiness punctuate the lives of these determined and devoted Jewish farmers, against a backdrop of sometimes frightening political change. The lives and the way of life, portrayed in this novel are told with a deep admiration and love, which serves as a literary testimony to a reality that, 50 years later, went up in flames.

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2005