Isaac's Torah: A novel

Description

This novel is the saga in five parts of Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld, who grows up in Kolodetz, a small town near Lvov, which, when he’s a boy, belongs to the Hapsburg Empire, but which subsequently belongs to Poland, Soviet Russia, Germany, and then Russia again. Isaac survives the absurdity and horror of Eastern Europe during the 20th century by pretending to be a fool. If this is an old Jewish art, then Isaac is a consummate artist. He plays the fool all his life, from his boyhood in Kolodetz shetl to the time when he is an accused war criminal in a Gulag in Siberia. Inseparable from Isaac’s life and story are the Yiddish jokes and fables of Kolodetz. These and the counsel of his dear friend, the rabbi and chair of the atheist club in Kolodetz, Shmuel Ben David, sustain Isaac through two world wars, three concentration camps, and five motherlands. The book puts on record, with full art, what is perhaps the central story of the last one hundred years. It is a wise book. Cover Other Titles Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Instead of a Foreword Isaac’s Introduction: A Letter to Rabbi Shmuel Ben-David Isaac’s First Book: How I Went to War, in Order to Bring Victory Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Isaac’s Second Book: The End of My War, or How I Became a Pole Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Isaac’s Third Book: The Red Front, or the Five-Year Plan Speeded-Up Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Isaac’s Fourth Book: “To Each His Own,” or to the Concentration Camps, with Love Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight The Fifth Book of Isaac: “Shnat Shmita.” Once More, from the Beginning. About the Black Sun and the White Nights. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Final Apocalypse of Revelation Author’s Acknowledgments Translators’ Acknowledgments About the Author