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The Testament
On August 12, 1952, Russia's greatest Jewish writers were secretly executed by Stalin. In this remarkable blend of history and imagination, Paltiel Kossover meets the same fate but, unlike his real-life counterparts, he is permitted to leave a written testament. From a Jewish boyhood in pre-revolutionary Russia, Paltiel traveled down a road that embraced Communism, only to return to Russia and discover a Communist Party that had become his mortal enemy. Two decades later, Paltiel's son, Grisha, reads this precious record of his father's life and finds that it illuminates the shadowed planes of his own.
Passionate and fierce, this story of a father's legacy to his son revisits some of the most dramatic events of our century, and confirms yet again Elie Wiesel's stature as "a writer of the highest moral imagination" ("San Francisco Chronicle").
Passionate and fierce, this story of a father's legacy to his son revisits some of the most dramatic events of our century, and confirms yet again Elie Wiesel's stature as "a writer of the highest moral imagination" ("San Francisco Chronicle").
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 1980
18 people are currently reading
596 people want to read
About the author
Elie Wiesel
274 books4,547 followersEliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 26, 2013
After Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, stripped my teeth of all of their enamel, I swore I'd never read a book of his again.
Yet, a few months ago, I found myself at the estate sale of a highly literate Jewish man, a man older than Wiesel himself, and I was confronted with a box of books by Elie Wiesel. My inner Jew whispered, "How can I deny this man, despite the places he takes me?"
No, I can not turn my back on you, Mr. Wiesel, no matter how uncomfortable you make me. No matter that you take me through some of history's darkest chapters. . . Russian pogroms, civil wars, the Holocaust.
Yes, you take your readers on a journey through hell, the many different forms of hell that we have made for ourselves on this planet, and this is not an easy read.
But, I honor your tireless mission of "Lest we forget." I admire what, through your mystical and passionate writing, you have kept alive of your Judaic, and human, traditions.
And, somehow, you still write with beauty, with optimism, with a life-affirming zest!
Some of my favorite lines:
"Yiddish is a Jewish language. A language unlike any other, it tells of sorrows and joys unlike any others, it's a very rich language given to a very poor people."
"You're a Jew, first and foremost; it is as a Jew that you will be helping mankind. If you care for others to the detriment of your brothers, you will eventually deny everyone."
"Since the world was the world, there has always been one man who looks around and declares the end is at hand--and he is always right."
Yet, a few months ago, I found myself at the estate sale of a highly literate Jewish man, a man older than Wiesel himself, and I was confronted with a box of books by Elie Wiesel. My inner Jew whispered, "How can I deny this man, despite the places he takes me?"
No, I can not turn my back on you, Mr. Wiesel, no matter how uncomfortable you make me. No matter that you take me through some of history's darkest chapters. . . Russian pogroms, civil wars, the Holocaust.
Yes, you take your readers on a journey through hell, the many different forms of hell that we have made for ourselves on this planet, and this is not an easy read.
But, I honor your tireless mission of "Lest we forget." I admire what, through your mystical and passionate writing, you have kept alive of your Judaic, and human, traditions.
And, somehow, you still write with beauty, with optimism, with a life-affirming zest!
Some of my favorite lines:
"Yiddish is a Jewish language. A language unlike any other, it tells of sorrows and joys unlike any others, it's a very rich language given to a very poor people."
"You're a Jew, first and foremost; it is as a Jew that you will be helping mankind. If you care for others to the detriment of your brothers, you will eventually deny everyone."
"Since the world was the world, there has always been one man who looks around and declares the end is at hand--and he is always right."
September 23, 2021
Um dos livros mais profundos que li! Todos as obras das grandes guerras me emocionam. Principalmente sobre a história dos judeus e o seu massacre. Como os homens podem ser cruéis?
" Testamento de um poeta judeu assassinado" é uma narrativa de guerra e perdão, Deus e o Homem, pai e filho.
Elie Wiesel descreve a sua infância na Roménia, no judaísmo bem presente na vida deste pequeno poeta. A sua juventude na Roménia, integrando o comunismo e a sua filosofia. O sua descrença em Deus. A busca pelo famoso Messias que encontra no professor David. E os seus amores... Raisa e Grisha... Grisha, seu amado filho que cresce guardando rancor da sua mãe. Fica mudo. Seu único conforto são os poemas de seu pai e o seu amigo guarda. É esse guarda que revela-lhe o testamento de Palitel.
Palitel e Grisha são duas personagens que ficaram para sempre na minha memória. Palitel não mais será esquecido. Sua voz é um grito de revolta e não deve ser calada!
" Testamento de um poeta judeu assassinado" é uma narrativa de guerra e perdão, Deus e o Homem, pai e filho.
Elie Wiesel descreve a sua infância na Roménia, no judaísmo bem presente na vida deste pequeno poeta. A sua juventude na Roménia, integrando o comunismo e a sua filosofia. O sua descrença em Deus. A busca pelo famoso Messias que encontra no professor David. E os seus amores... Raisa e Grisha... Grisha, seu amado filho que cresce guardando rancor da sua mãe. Fica mudo. Seu único conforto são os poemas de seu pai e o seu amigo guarda. É esse guarda que revela-lhe o testamento de Palitel.
Palitel e Grisha são duas personagens que ficaram para sempre na minha memória. Palitel não mais será esquecido. Sua voz é um grito de revolta e não deve ser calada!
July 30, 2024
O livro narra a vida de um poeta na União Soviética, Paltiel Kossover, durante o período estalinista, acusado de ser um inimigo do povo, pelo facto de ser judeu e pelas suas convicções comunistas. Detido e acusado de traição na União Soviética, Paltiel é forçado a confrontar o seu passado e as suas convicções enquanto escreve as suas memórias a pedido de um magistrado. Este ato de recordação torna-se uma viagem emocional que explora a identidade, a fé e a resistência humana diante da opressão e da injustiça.
February 7, 2017
Beautiful and melancholic book, dealing with religion, identity, totalitarism, parenthood, the trace one leaves to others, to his children.
Pavel, he main character gives up on ancient jew traditions to embrace communism in the 20's and spends the rest of his rather short life torn between his political and his religious/cultural conscience as his ideals break themselves against the walls of totalitarism and anti-semitism.
The building-up of the paranoid commusist system is fascinating, as much as the interrogations of the tormented poet caught up within. These are anguished and depressing, mirroring their time, a turning point in History.
Wiesel writes beautifully this sad story, alternating extracts of Pavel's testament, some of his poetry, and the life of his mute son Grisha, newcomer in Israel on the eve of the Yom Kippur war, who tries to take over his own life through the testament of this father he never knew.
A gripping story, if not particularly joyful.
Pavel, he main character gives up on ancient jew traditions to embrace communism in the 20's and spends the rest of his rather short life torn between his political and his religious/cultural conscience as his ideals break themselves against the walls of totalitarism and anti-semitism.
The building-up of the paranoid commusist system is fascinating, as much as the interrogations of the tormented poet caught up within. These are anguished and depressing, mirroring their time, a turning point in History.
Wiesel writes beautifully this sad story, alternating extracts of Pavel's testament, some of his poetry, and the life of his mute son Grisha, newcomer in Israel on the eve of the Yom Kippur war, who tries to take over his own life through the testament of this father he never knew.
A gripping story, if not particularly joyful.
May 10, 2025
Took a few chapters for me to get into. I think it was mainly the style of switching back-and-forth between perspectives, which also kept jumping betweent the 1st-person narrative of someone in the past, to a 3rd-person narrative of someone else in the present...
Once I got used to the style of going back-and-forth like that, I easily got into the story and the characters and what they were going through. While this is technically a work of fiction, the author went through so many similar horrors himself and obviously drew from real-life experience while writing this, so this could easily have been someone's true story...
Once I got used to the style of going back-and-forth like that, I easily got into the story and the characters and what they were going through. While this is technically a work of fiction, the author went through so many similar horrors himself and obviously drew from real-life experience while writing this, so this could easily have been someone's true story...
March 17, 2016
A story that weaves through the major chapters of mid-twentieth century Europe - the pogroms of Russia, the socialist and Communist revolutions, the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler, the dark storm of the Second World War. Wiesel's use of meta-narrative allows exponential reflections of characters' morals, ethics, and stories to occur, and it's quite lovely. Characters all wrestle with spirituality, and Wiesel's comparison of Messianic Judaism with communism, is a brilliant and sometimes painful one.
The reflections on torture resonated particularly deeply with me. This book should be required reading alongside any 20th century European history class or course - surely if we were forced to reflect on the atrocities of the past, we would be making better decisions for our collective future.
The reflections on torture resonated particularly deeply with me. This book should be required reading alongside any 20th century European history class or course - surely if we were forced to reflect on the atrocities of the past, we would be making better decisions for our collective future.
August 19, 2024
The Testament
Eli Wiesel is an excellent writer. His novel The Testament is brilliant. Everything about it is fantastic. The plot is interesting, enlightening, and engaging, a delight to read. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 because of what he wrote about the horrors of the Holocaust, Russia, and other subjects. He paints his characters in words artistically, as Rembrandt painted in oils. His Nobel citation reads: “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace and atonement and human dignity. The message is in the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the works of a great author.”
He certainly deserved this Nobel Peace Prize. However, readers of this book and others will lead many of them, as they lead me to feel that he should have also won the Nobel Prize for literature because his books are so good.
The Testament focuses on the Russian leader Stalin murdering Russia’s greatest Jewish poets and novelists on August 12, 1952, and before that date. He gathers the lives, thinking, and acts of these martyrs by telling the tale of one of them, a Jewish poet who, despite devoting himself to communism, was murdered by the communist leader. Readers will wonder why the Jewish intellectuals were killed. They will gain many insights from this book about Jews and non-Jews.
Readers will enjoy Weisel’s manner of writing. While undoubtedly easy-to-read prose, his writing often feels poetic, even dream-like, like good poetry usually saying more than what the words are saying. His writings prompt us to think.
We read about the poet’s upbringing. He was raised in a Jewish Orthodox Russian home, studied with rabbis, observed all the Jewish rituals, and put on his tefillin daily when he recited prayers, except on Shabbat and holidays, as Jewish laws require. But he soon abandoned Jewish practices for communism, as I will discuss below. Even during the many years of abandonment, he always took his tefillin in his suitcase when he traveled or placed it in his drawer at home, unable to abandon his father’s life completely.
Is this why Stalin hated Jews who loved, glorified, and aided communism because he could not stand the idea that their communism contained a Jewish seasoning?
We read about the pogroms the poet and his family experienced, the murders, the vicious manner in which non-Jewish mobs treated Jews on the holiday of Christmas, the rapes, mutilations, robberies, destruction of homes, and other repulsive acts that Wiesel depicts artistically.
Similarly, we read how our poet went to war in Spain on the side of communism when Spain was involved in a civil war between those who adopted Nazi ideas and those who endorsed communism. Each side committed inhuman cruelties. The same occurred when he joined the Russian army against Germany, with the same atrocities, deaths, and mutilations.
What struck me the most of all the many revelations Elie Wiesel gives us is the ease with which religious Jews turned from the wisdom and goal of Judaism to communism. The psychology is evident today, both among Jews and non-Jews.
The Jewish youths in Stalin’s Russia, both those who were mistreated and those who lived in prosperity, those with Jewish education and those who had little Jewish knowledge, were filled with the desire to see a messianic age, which Judaism saw as a goal for humanity. They felt correctly that the age would not come miraculously. It required work. But they stumbled in the wrong direction when they listened and believed that communism would create their desired messianic age. They naively believed communism would create equality, luxury, and freedom – the sun would shine brighter, the air would be fresher, and the water clear.
This problem exists for all people today, not only Jews. People need goals to survive, but the goals must be sensible. Even if the goals are ideal, people must be careful what path they take to accomplish them.
Communism is not seen as a path to the Valhalla today, but a diluted version of it, socialism, is. Jewish intellectuals were murdered by Stalin in 1952 under the banner of communism; all society will suffer and drown in its watered-down version.
Eli Wiesel is an excellent writer. His novel The Testament is brilliant. Everything about it is fantastic. The plot is interesting, enlightening, and engaging, a delight to read. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 because of what he wrote about the horrors of the Holocaust, Russia, and other subjects. He paints his characters in words artistically, as Rembrandt painted in oils. His Nobel citation reads: “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace and atonement and human dignity. The message is in the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the works of a great author.”
He certainly deserved this Nobel Peace Prize. However, readers of this book and others will lead many of them, as they lead me to feel that he should have also won the Nobel Prize for literature because his books are so good.
The Testament focuses on the Russian leader Stalin murdering Russia’s greatest Jewish poets and novelists on August 12, 1952, and before that date. He gathers the lives, thinking, and acts of these martyrs by telling the tale of one of them, a Jewish poet who, despite devoting himself to communism, was murdered by the communist leader. Readers will wonder why the Jewish intellectuals were killed. They will gain many insights from this book about Jews and non-Jews.
Readers will enjoy Weisel’s manner of writing. While undoubtedly easy-to-read prose, his writing often feels poetic, even dream-like, like good poetry usually saying more than what the words are saying. His writings prompt us to think.
We read about the poet’s upbringing. He was raised in a Jewish Orthodox Russian home, studied with rabbis, observed all the Jewish rituals, and put on his tefillin daily when he recited prayers, except on Shabbat and holidays, as Jewish laws require. But he soon abandoned Jewish practices for communism, as I will discuss below. Even during the many years of abandonment, he always took his tefillin in his suitcase when he traveled or placed it in his drawer at home, unable to abandon his father’s life completely.
Is this why Stalin hated Jews who loved, glorified, and aided communism because he could not stand the idea that their communism contained a Jewish seasoning?
We read about the pogroms the poet and his family experienced, the murders, the vicious manner in which non-Jewish mobs treated Jews on the holiday of Christmas, the rapes, mutilations, robberies, destruction of homes, and other repulsive acts that Wiesel depicts artistically.
Similarly, we read how our poet went to war in Spain on the side of communism when Spain was involved in a civil war between those who adopted Nazi ideas and those who endorsed communism. Each side committed inhuman cruelties. The same occurred when he joined the Russian army against Germany, with the same atrocities, deaths, and mutilations.
What struck me the most of all the many revelations Elie Wiesel gives us is the ease with which religious Jews turned from the wisdom and goal of Judaism to communism. The psychology is evident today, both among Jews and non-Jews.
The Jewish youths in Stalin’s Russia, both those who were mistreated and those who lived in prosperity, those with Jewish education and those who had little Jewish knowledge, were filled with the desire to see a messianic age, which Judaism saw as a goal for humanity. They felt correctly that the age would not come miraculously. It required work. But they stumbled in the wrong direction when they listened and believed that communism would create their desired messianic age. They naively believed communism would create equality, luxury, and freedom – the sun would shine brighter, the air would be fresher, and the water clear.
This problem exists for all people today, not only Jews. People need goals to survive, but the goals must be sensible. Even if the goals are ideal, people must be careful what path they take to accomplish them.
Communism is not seen as a path to the Valhalla today, but a diluted version of it, socialism, is. Jewish intellectuals were murdered by Stalin in 1952 under the banner of communism; all society will suffer and drown in its watered-down version.
October 8, 2018
Amazing the number of books that I read once that I am reading again. I read this book probably 30 years ago or maybe it was just out of college and I don’t remember any of it. I remembered that it was about a communist in a rush but that’s all I remembered. Once again Eli Wiesel shows his masterful come binding of the past the present and his translator doesn’t excellent job of bringing that alive on the page. The description of the program and also the part where the poet realizes his affinity with the dead is probably one of the best descriptions in this book though they are all pretty good. Once again they relate resales common themes through all of his writing and I think that his books are probably some of the most descriptive about that time period. I do read many of his books at one time I usually take breaks between them because they are so tense with analysis, description, and the whole subject matter surrounding trying to make sense of the Holocaust and ensuing years. I think this book is mainly about World War II though it certainly Enns and Soviet Russia. I like the last phrase from the poet Who says memory or is in the language of the people. Sitting in the you always wish things would happen differently.
February 20, 2023
Paltiel Kossover, poeta ebreo assassinato da Stalin nelle cantine della NKVD, o meglio “poeta per vocazione, ebreo per nascita e, perdonatemi, comunista o ex comunista, per convinzione”.
Elie Wiesel, de.scrittore, deportato ad Auschwitz e Buchenwald.
Si somigliano, i due. Nel loro scrivere per ‘testimoniare’.
Tutti dovremmo farlo, anche se non siamo morti in una prigione, né siamo stati deportati. Però tutti abbiamo un ‘figlio’. No, non parlo dell’essere madri o padri, anzi sì, ma tutti abbiamo un figlio che si chiama Futuro. Non tutti però siamo poeti, anche se in questi poeti pare abbondino, tra virtuale, reale e sogno. Non tutti lo siamo e non tutti possiamo scrivere un Testamento di questa portata emotiva e storica, ma o così o meglio il silenzio. Per il ‘così’ dovrete leggere il libro.
Avrei potuto segnalare le pagine dove ho evidenziato le parole dedicate a ME, non le trascrivo, dovrete cercare le vostre!
Elie Wiesel, de.scrittore, deportato ad Auschwitz e Buchenwald.
Si somigliano, i due. Nel loro scrivere per ‘testimoniare’.
Tutti dovremmo farlo, anche se non siamo morti in una prigione, né siamo stati deportati. Però tutti abbiamo un ‘figlio’. No, non parlo dell’essere madri o padri, anzi sì, ma tutti abbiamo un figlio che si chiama Futuro. Non tutti però siamo poeti, anche se in questi poeti pare abbondino, tra virtuale, reale e sogno. Non tutti lo siamo e non tutti possiamo scrivere un Testamento di questa portata emotiva e storica, ma o così o meglio il silenzio. Per il ‘così’ dovrete leggere il libro.
Avrei potuto segnalare le pagine dove ho evidenziato le parole dedicate a ME, non le trascrivo, dovrete cercare le vostre!
August 13, 2023
A very powerful story. This novel includes many important events in the first half of the 20th century. I found the writing to be very captivating and thought provoking. In particular I liked the use of the stenographer as a character. I highly recommend this story I think it is one that will have relevance today and well into the future.
September 3, 2020
Non lo definirei un libro brutto (l'inizio è lentissimo, poi fortunatamente prende ritmo e soprattutto si parla meno di Grisha, personaggio che ho trovato abbastanza fastidioso), ma comunque mi aspettavo qualcosa di diverso.
July 9, 2023
Quel très beau livre sous l'éclairage des pages de l'archipel du Goulag. Juif et russe : après avoir échappé aux pogroms et à l'extermination nazie, une engeance sous le communisme de Staline . Cela reste toutefois un éloge magique au bonheur et à la sincérité.
April 1, 2020
Eh, couldn't get through this. Just didn't take off with his characters.
October 1, 2021
Beautifully written and heartbreaking to read.
April 20, 2018
This is a difficult read. I found it a bit hard to follow and the atrocities disturbing. Innitially, the main characters are introduced, Paltiel Kossover, his wife Raissa, his son Grisha, and lastly his prison stenographer, Zupenev.
The early life of Paltiel is told; of his Jewish upbringing and his studies to be a rabbi, which he gave up, for a career in writing poetry. He is unsettled as a youngadult and then realizes as a Jew he must leave Germany. His war experiences, fighting for Russia,are rather horrific, but he survives, marries and has a son. He lives in seclusion for about 2 years and finally is arrested and imprisoned. He writes "His Testament," for the "Citizen Magistrate," his judge. The Russians are looking for crimes he may innocently admit to and other writers he may identify. He is assisted unbeknownst to him, by a stenographer, Zupenev. Zupenev is convinced of his innocence, but cannot save him. He is so impressed by Paltiel he vows to find Grisha, Paltiel's son, and share his notes with him.
In 1952 Stalin suddenly executes of all of the Jewish writers. Nothing is known of what happened to them
The early life of Paltiel is told; of his Jewish upbringing and his studies to be a rabbi, which he gave up, for a career in writing poetry. He is unsettled as a youngadult and then realizes as a Jew he must leave Germany. His war experiences, fighting for Russia,are rather horrific, but he survives, marries and has a son. He lives in seclusion for about 2 years and finally is arrested and imprisoned. He writes "His Testament," for the "Citizen Magistrate," his judge. The Russians are looking for crimes he may innocently admit to and other writers he may identify. He is assisted unbeknownst to him, by a stenographer, Zupenev. Zupenev is convinced of his innocence, but cannot save him. He is so impressed by Paltiel he vows to find Grisha, Paltiel's son, and share his notes with him.
In 1952 Stalin suddenly executes of all of the Jewish writers. Nothing is known of what happened to them
July 3, 2020
Devastatingly beautiful and painful to read knowing the truth contained in this story. Although this is fiction, it could easily be biographical and that brings a sharp edge to the story which is hard to fob off.
June 15, 2020
While the structure of this book is a bit confusing, the story is clear. The Testament is the life story of Paltiel Kossover, a Jewish Russian poet, who's was executed in 1952 at the order of Josef Stalin mainly because he was a Jew. Paltiel was killed when his son Grisha was only 3, and so Grisha grows up not knowing the story of his father. However, the night watchmen, Victor Zupeanev, has in his possession a copy of The Testament, which he reads/shares with Grisha. Zupanev was the prison stenographer whee Kossover was taken in 1952. Zupanev kept two copies one from the prison magistrate to whom the Testament is written and one for himself, which he saves to share with Grisha. The Testament helped the Magistrate identify other "rebellious Jews" who also should be imprisoned and killed.
the Testament itself tells Kossover's story leaving his family and his practice of the Jewish faith in Romania as a young man to go to Paris to meet up with the Jewish member so the Communist party there. Then he goes to Spain to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War and then on the eve of WW II he returns from Paris to Russia, where he is horrified to learn that Russia has made a pact with Germany the racist regime he so opposed. Later Russia joins the allies and Kossover is a stretcher bearer and gravedigger for the Russian army. he comes to the town of his youth to learn his whole family has been killed. After the war, he marries and enjoys success as a poet and an editor until Stalin decides to purge the Jews.
What is odd is that in the beginning and briefly at other points in the book, we meet Grisha who has just arrived in Israel as a young man. He is mute but awaits his mother's arrival, which does not occur because she got sick. These pieces of the story hang out there with not real link to the story or the letting. Nonetheless, the story is engaging and informative about the life of Jews in Communist Russia before and after WWII
the Testament itself tells Kossover's story leaving his family and his practice of the Jewish faith in Romania as a young man to go to Paris to meet up with the Jewish member so the Communist party there. Then he goes to Spain to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War and then on the eve of WW II he returns from Paris to Russia, where he is horrified to learn that Russia has made a pact with Germany the racist regime he so opposed. Later Russia joins the allies and Kossover is a stretcher bearer and gravedigger for the Russian army. he comes to the town of his youth to learn his whole family has been killed. After the war, he marries and enjoys success as a poet and an editor until Stalin decides to purge the Jews.
What is odd is that in the beginning and briefly at other points in the book, we meet Grisha who has just arrived in Israel as a young man. He is mute but awaits his mother's arrival, which does not occur because she got sick. These pieces of the story hang out there with not real link to the story or the letting. Nonetheless, the story is engaging and informative about the life of Jews in Communist Russia before and after WWII
February 8, 2017
This was rather disappointing. Perhaps I expected too much give the power of his other works. This book seemed written with writers rather than readers in mind. The disrupted narrative, overuse of allusion, and stylised language made me tire early and meant I lost interest in his characters.
June 12, 2012
This is a phenomenal book. For the first time I felt like I understood why communism took root in Russia and why the Jews embraced it. It treks across the beginning of the Soviet Union, into Berlin at the time Marxism was being embraced, the rise of Hitler, Paris, Spain and ultimately back to the Soviet Union. The combination of words and depth of feeling take you on a unforgettable journey. And yes, in the end, we see the final evil of Stalin. Russian pogroms, Hitler’s extermination, Spain’s fight against fascism, all fascinating reading. I understand now why this won the Nobel Peace Prize. I highly recommend this book. A must read!
October 8, 2017
"Mio padre è un libro e i libri non muoiono." (p. 27)
"La vita è questo: un impossibile ritorno." (p. 84)
"Si sa mai cosa si scriverà? Si scrive, poi si sa." (p. 147)
"Un poeta che non guarda oltre il muro è come un uccello muto..." (p. 149)
"La vita è questo: un impossibile ritorno." (p. 84)
"Si sa mai cosa si scriverà? Si scrive, poi si sa." (p. 147)
"Un poeta che non guarda oltre il muro è come un uccello muto..." (p. 149)
July 23, 2024
Amazing book. A history that let you see the strugle of a jewish comunist during the bloom of comunism. Makes you thinhk about the great contribution to comunist thought by jewish thinkers, and the later betrayal of the regime.
"Everything begins and ends with words."
"Everything begins and ends with words."
July 22, 2007
too many characters that i don't know... it's like reading the author's journal/diary, only too personal to be share... too confusing about who is who and what's been done or was about to...
Want to read
June 23, 20101st edition, signed by author
January 15, 2015
Soul crushing book, so well written with the testament parallel to son's story
March 22, 2015
3.5 stars
July 21, 2016
Very easy and fascinating read about the realities of many Jewish Communists in Europe in the early and later parts of the 20th century.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews