Katerina - Softcover

Appelfeld, Aharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393311104 ISBN 13: 9780393311105

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 1994

Synopsis

Fleeing an abusive home, Katerina, a teenage peasant in Ukraine in the 1880s, is taken in by a Jewish family and becomes their housekeeper. Feeling the warmth of family life for the first time and incorporating the family s customs and rituals into her own Christian observances, Katerina is traumatized when the parents are murdered in separate pogroms and the children are taken away by relatives. She finds work with other Jewish families, all of whom are subjected to relentless persecution by their neighbors. When the beloved child she had with her Jewish lover is murdered, Katerina kills the murderer and is sent to prison. Released from prison years later, in the chaos following the end of World War II, a now elderly Katerina is devastated to find a world that has been emptied of its Jews and that is not at all sorry to see them gone. Ever the outsider, Katerina realizes that she has survived only to bear witness to the fact that these people had ever existed at all."

About this title

Review:

"Read this book . . . Think what a gift of lyric language and style, of emotion purified by pain this is."
--Anne Roiphe, "Los Angeles Times"
"Appelfeld reimagines the place of his own origins through a perspective that in its generosity of feeling recalls Tolstoy and Chekhov."
--Judith Grossman, "The New York Times Book Review"

Read this book . . . Think what a gift of lyric language and style, of emotion purified by pain this is.
Anne Roiphe, "Los Angeles Times"
Appelfeld reimagines the place of his own origins through a perspective that in its generosity of feeling recalls Tolstoy and Chekhov.
Judith Grossman, "The New York Times Book Review""

About the Author:

Aharon Appelfeld is the award-winning author of more than twenty internationally acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including "Badenheim 1939, Tzili, The Iron Tracks, " and "The Story of a Life." He lives in Jerusalem.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0393311104
• ISBN 13: 9780393311105
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 222