Two for the Devil (Paperback)

Allen Hoffman

ISBN 10: 0789206412 / ISBN 13: 9780789206411

Published by Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S., New York, 2000

About this Item

Paperback. An interrogation cell in Stalinist Russia; a cattle car bound for Treblinka in Nazi-occupied Poland--there's an eerie symmetry in Allen Hoffman's third installment in his Small Worlds series, the continuing story of a community of Jews living in Poland during the first half of the 20th century. The first novel, Small Worlds, started in 1903 and revolved around the rabbi of the village of Krimsk, while the second, Big League Dreams, followed some characters from the previous book to St. Louis, circa 1920. Two for the Devil is set in darker times, however; the first half of the novel takes place in Russia during the Stalinist purges of the mid-1930s. The main character, Colonel Grisha Shwartzmann, is a member of the Soviet secret police and charged with fitting unusual crimes to the Soviet criminal code. A staunch Bolshevik and apostate Jew, Shwartzmann finds himself confronted with a man who confesses to recurring dreams in which he has anal sex with Stalin-with the great leader always on the bottom. As Shwartzmann struggles to fit this square legal peg into the appropriate penal hole, he gradually becomes aware that the very system he serves will eventually turn on him, as well. Fast forward a few years . On Yom Kippur in 1942, Yechiel Katzman, late of the Warsaw Ghetto, finds himself in a cattle car bound for the death camp of Treblinka. During a brief stop along the route, Katzman is reunited with a fellow Jew from Krimsk, a retarded giant whom the Nazis are using to further their own genocidal aims. In such a time and place, there can be no reprieve, but there is a possibility for redemption, as Katzman's subsequent actions suggest. The gentle charm of the previous two books gives way to a blacker humor here, but the feeling that this is a world of wonders--however terrible--still remains. The related tales in Two for the Devil prove that, even in the midst of unspeakable evil, with faith there can be transcendence. Records the fate of the villagers of Krimsk as they encounter the twentieth century's greatest agents of evil: Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780789206411

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two for the Devil (Paperback)
• Publisher: Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S., New York
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789206412
• ISBN 13: 9780789206411
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Facing an extraordinary prisoner, Grisha realizes that the Soviet system he has faithfully served is murderously corrupt and that he himself will be the next victim ― but not an innocent one.

It is Rosh Hashanah ― the Jewish New Year and Day of Judgment ― in Moscow during the Stalinist purges of 1936. In the Lubyanka secret police prison, senior investigator Grisha Shwartzman masterfully pursues the rigorous logic and obsessive legalism of the Soviet witch-hunt. Facing an extraordinary prisoner, Grisha realizes that the Soviet system he has faithfully served is murderously corrupt and that he himself will be the next victim ― but not an innocent one. In despair, he flees to his home, where his deranged wife and an unexpected Rosh Hashanah letter from his father-in-law, the enigmatic Krimsker Rebbe in America, await him. The Day of Judgment proves to be a startling experience as Grisha, the once idealistic radical, judges himself, accepts his responsibilities, and is guided to sublime passion and possible redemption by his mad wife, who for twenty years has been patiently awaiting him in a closed wardrobe.

In 1942 a train of imprisoned Jews leaves the Warsaw ghetto for "resettlement in the East." It is Yom Kippur ― the Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish year. In a crowded cattle car stands a lonely, defeated individual who is ashamed that he cannot even remember his own name. During the tortuous journey, Yechiel Katzman will overhear a talmudic debate and meet a dull-witted giant who turns out to be none other than Itzik Dribble, also from Krimsk. As they arrive in the death camp of Treblinka, Yechiel remembers not only his name, but also the Krimsker Rebbe's prophetic curse that exiled him from Krimsk forty years earlier. Yet as death approaches, that curse will prove a blessing.

Stalin and Hitler decree certain death, but Grisha and Yechiel discover Jewish fates. The devil incites loneliness, degradation, despair, and even complicity; through memory, the victims elicit community, dignity, and the awareness of sanctity. Grisha's "Soviet" Rosh Hashanah and Yechiel's "Nazi" Yom Kippur are truly "Days of Awe." Even when death is certain, life can be lived.

About the Author

Allen Hoffman, award-winning author of the novel Small Worlds and of a novella and short stories, was born in Saint Louis and received his B.A. in American history from Harvard University. He studied the Talmud in yeshivas in New York and Jerusalem, and has taught in New York City schools. He and his wife and four children live in Jerusalem. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Bar-Ilan University.