Yaniv Iczkovits

"Boundless imagination and a vibrant style . . . a heroine of unforgettable grit" DAVID GROSSMAN "A story of great beauty and surprise" GARY SHTEYNGART The townsfolk of Motal, an isolated, godforsaken town in the Pale of Settlement, are shocked when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night. True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her? Could it have anything to do with Fanny's missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning their family to destitution and despair? Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night? Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Telekhany, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely a crime like that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, however the people of Motal might mutter about her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild animal . . . Surely not. Translated from the Hebrew by Orr Scharf

The Avenging of Mende Speismann at the Hands of Her Sister Fanny

The Slaughterman's Daughter

Córka rzeźnika

"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.

A Novel

Orr Scharf

The Avenging of Mende Speismann by the Hand of Her Sister Fanny

Slaughterman's Daughter

Epska istorijska avantura smeštena u Jevrejsku oblast poslednjih godina Ruskog carstva – izvanredan roman koji je spoj Violiniste na krovu i Kventina Tarantina. Sa reputacijom vilde chaya, divlje životinje, Fani Kajzman nije poput ostalih žena u Motalu, gradiću u Jevrejskoj oblasti gde se nikad ništa zanimljivo ne događa. Svakako nije kao njena lakoverna sestra Mende, čiji je muž Cvi-Majr pobegao u Minsk, ostavivši porodicu u nemaštini i očaju. Još kao mlada devojka, Fani je osetila izuzetnu strast prema očevoj profesiji ritualnog koljača, mada ju je nerado podučavao, postala je veoma vešta s nožem. Iako je odavno napustila to neprikladno zanimanje – sada je mlekareva žena i majka petoro dece – Fani još uvek drži nož uz svoju desnu nogu. Što bi moglo biti od koristi kada, ne obazirući se na opasnosti sa kojima bi mogla da se susretne jedna Jevrejka koja sama putuje po Carskoj Rusiji, uz pomoć tajanstvenog onemelog čamdžije Ciceka Brešova, bivšeg vojnika neobične prošlosti, krene u potragu za zetom i pokuša da ga vrati kući. Janiv Ickovič pretvara porodičnu dramu u komediju zabune koja će izazvati sukob između carske vojske i ruske tajne policije i ugroziti same temelje Ruske imperije. Prevod sa engleskog Danko Ješić

Yaniv Iczkovits

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