Two for the Devil
Published on 17. September 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
254 pages
978-0-7892-0397-7 (ISBN)
Description
In Moscow at the height of the 1936 Stalinist purges, Grisha Shwartzman discovers on Rosh Hashanah-the Jewish New Year and Day of Judgment-that he is in danger of liquidation by the secret police he serves. In 1942, Yechiel Katzman finds himself on a train of imprisoned Jews as it leaves the Warsaw ghetto on Yom Kippur-the Day of Atonement-for "resettlement in the East." Stalin and Hitler decree certain death, but in the course of their experiences Grisha and Yechiel discover Jewish fates. Through memory, both men gain community, dignity, and the awareness of sanctity, Grisha's "Soviet" Rosh Hashanah and Yechiel's "Nazi" Yom Kippur are truly "Days of Awe."
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Two for the Devil: "Vividly chronicles the extraordinary daily lives of the citizens of Krimsk...[Mr. Hoffman's] sympathetic presentation of these characters reveals much about the tension between human desire and belief, about the complexities of conscience and commitment." - New York Times Book Review "First-rate fiction: reminiscent...of such precursors as Sholem Aleichem, but possessed of distinctive individual strengths and firmly rooted in its characters strange new land and even stranger adventures." - Kirkus Reviews "Hoffman fashions a haunting, bittersweet story of exile, dislocation and redemption in the Promised Land...Robust humor, insight into human nature and an absence of sentimentality augment Hoffman's storytelling skills." - Publishers Weekly, starred reviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
399 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7892-0397-7 (9780789203977)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Allen Hoffman
Two for the Devil
E-Book
06/2011
Abbeville Publishing Group
€11.49
Available for download
Person
Allen Hoffman, an award-winning author of short stories and screenplays, was born in St. 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, where he teaches English literature and creative writing at Bar Ilan University.