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The slaughterman's daughter / Yaniv Iczkovits ; translated from the Hebrew by Orr Scharf.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Hebrew Publisher: New York : Schocken Books, [2021]Edition: First United States editionDescription: 515 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780805243659
  • 0805243658
Uniform titles:
  • Tiḳun aḥar ḥatsot. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "An enthralling, picaresque tale of two Jewish sisters in late nineteenth-century Russia, filled with "boundless imagination, wit, and panache" (David Grossman), and enough intrigue and misadventure to stupefy the Cohen brothers. With her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild beast, Fanny Keismann isn't like the other women in her shtetl-certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose "philosopher" of a husband, Zvi-Meir, has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children in a small village in Russia's Pale of Settlement. As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward the profession of her father, Grodno's ritual slaughterer, who reluctantly took her under his wing and trained her to be a master shochet-incredibly skilled with a knife. It's a knife that Fanny keeps tied to her right leg even now, as a married woman, cheese farmer, and mother of five, long after she's given up that unsuitable profession. Horrified by her brother-in-law's actions and heedless of the dangers facing a Jewish woman travelling alone in Czarist Russia, Fanny decides that enough is enough and sets off to track down Zvi-Meir and bring him home-with the help of the mute and mysterious ferryman, Zizek Breshov, an ex-soldier with his own sensational past. In irresistible prose, Israeli novelist Yaniv Iczkovits spins a family drama into a far-reaching comedy of errors that soon pits the Czar's army against the Russian secret police and threatens the foundations of the Russian Empire. The Slaughterman's Daughter is a rollicking and unforgettable work of fiction"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction ICZKOVIT YANIV Available 33111010475578
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"If the Coen brothers ever ventured beyond the United States for their films, they would find ample material in this novel."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Occasionally a book comes along so fresh, strange, and original that it seems peerless, utterly unprecedented. This is one of those books."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

**Winner of the 2021 Wingate Literary Prize**
**Finalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Awards, "Book Club Award"**

An irresistible, picaresque tale of two Jewish sisters in late-nineteenth-century Russia, The Slaughterman's Daughter is filled with "boundless imagination and a vibrant style" (David Grossman).

With her reputation as a vilde chaya (wild animal), Fanny Keismann isn't like the other women in her shtetl in the Pale of Settlement--certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose "philosopher" of a husband, Zvi-Meir, has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children.

As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward her father's profession of ritual slaughterer and, under his reluctant guidance, became a master with a knife. And though she long ago gave up that unsuitable profession--she's now the wife of a cheesemaker and a mother of five--Fanny still keeps the knife tied to her right leg. Which might come in handy when, heedless of the dangers facing a Jewish woman traveling alone in czarist Russia, she sets off to track down Zvi-Meir and bring him home, with the help of the mute and mysterious ferryman Zizek Breshov, an ex-soldier with his own sensational past.

Yaniv Iczkovits spins a family drama into a far-reaching comedy of errors that will pit the czar's army against the Russian secret police and threaten the very foundations of the Russian Empire. The Slaughterman's Daughter is a rollicking and unforgettable work of fiction.


"An enthralling, picaresque tale of two Jewish sisters in late nineteenth-century Russia, filled with "boundless imagination, wit, and panache" (David Grossman), and enough intrigue and misadventure to stupefy the Cohen brothers. With her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild beast, Fanny Keismann isn't like the other women in her shtetl-certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose "philosopher" of a husband, Zvi-Meir, has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children in a small village in Russia's Pale of Settlement. As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward the profession of her father, Grodno's ritual slaughterer, who reluctantly took her under his wing and trained her to be a master shochet-incredibly skilled with a knife. It's a knife that Fanny keeps tied to her right leg even now, as a married woman, cheese farmer, and mother of five, long after she's given up that unsuitable profession. Horrified by her brother-in-law's actions and heedless of the dangers facing a Jewish woman travelling alone in Czarist Russia, Fanny decides that enough is enough and sets off to track down Zvi-Meir and bring him home-with the help of the mute and mysterious ferryman, Zizek Breshov, an ex-soldier with his own sensational past. In irresistible prose, Israeli novelist Yaniv Iczkovits spins a family drama into a far-reaching comedy of errors that soon pits the Czar's army against the Russian secret police and threatens the foundations of the Russian Empire. The Slaughterman's Daughter is a rollicking and unforgettable work of fiction"-- Provided by publisher.

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