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Archive for August, 2008

The Gravedigger’s Daughter, by Joyce Carol Oates
“You saw him at a distance: the gravedigger Schwart.

Like a troll he appeared. Somewhat hunched, head lowered.”
In The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Jacob Schwart, a Jew, moves his family from Nazi Germany to rural upstate New York. They end up in a small town, where Schwart finds a job as a [...]

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If you are a fan of Avner Gold, then you will be delighted to learn that “the long awaited continuation” of his historical novel series “Rauch Ami”, “The Long Road to Freedom“, has been published. As in previous books of the series, “The Long Road to Freedom” is a novel whose journey brings into [...]

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Infidelities, by Josip Novakovich, encompasses a collection of short stories, taking place within Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, etc., stories that make us question exactly what the word infidelity actually means. Josip’s stories also make us question the rewards and/or resulting repercussions of our choices.
Are we involved in infidelity if our thoughts are with another person, [...]

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“Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends“, by Elie Wiesel, is a book that is filled with fantastic word-images and descriptions told from the perspective of a Holocaust survivor. The book deals with various characters of the Bible: Adam, Cain, Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, Esau, Moses, and Job, and how they obtain spiritual growth [...]

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Philip Roth has long been one of my favorite male authors, and in his novel, The Counterlife, I am reminded of his ability to blend the bizarre twists and turns that life throws us into a work of art that resounds with his full range and depth of literary intensity.
Nathan and Henry Zuckerman are estranged [...]

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Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels is more than a novel based on the Holocaust, it is a poetically-rendered geological metaphor for the power of loss and love, memory and place. Human history is woven within the bogs and peat of the past and present, as both are intertwined within the beautifully written stories.
Yes, stories. Fugitive [...]

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