The Slaughterman's Daughter
Winner of the Wingate Prize 2021
Published on 20. February 2020
Book
Hardback
528 pages
978-0-85705-827-0 (ISBN)
Description
WINNER OF THE WINGATE PRIZE 2021
SUNDAY TIMES "MUST READS" PICK
ECONOMIST "BEST BOOKS OF 2020" PICK
KIRKUS REVIEWS "10 BOOKS TO LOOK FOR IN 2021" PICK
"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
SUNDAY TIMES "MUST READS" PICK
ECONOMIST "BEST BOOKS OF 2020" PICK
KIRKUS REVIEWS "10 BOOKS TO LOOK FOR IN 2021" PICK
"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
Reviews / Votes
With boundless imagination and a vibrant style, Yaniv Iczkovits creates a colorful family drama that spins nineteenth century Russia out of control, and he delivers a heroine of unforgettable grit. Iczkovits wields his pen with wit and panache. A remarkable and evocative read -- David Grossman A story of great beauty and surprise. A necessary antidote for our times -- Gary Shteyngart The Slaughterman's Daughter is a miraculous patchwork-quilt of individual stories within stories told by different voices through which Fanny, the Belorussian Jewish slaughterman's daughter, cuts with her butcher's knife in search of justice. That quest for justice is the master story: a feminist picaresque set in a landscape of visionary and intimate historical and physical detail -- George Szirtes Totally compulsive reading -- Rosemary Sullivan With the sweeping grandeur of a Russian epic and the sly, sometimes bawdy humour of the Yiddish greats, The Slaughterman's Daughter is a magnificent triumph -- Bram Presser, author of The Book of Dirt "An extraordinarily vivid portrayal of life in the Pale of Settlement, an area of the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire where Jews were allowed, begrudgingly, to live" -- Antonia Senior * The Times * A narrative full of invention and surprises . . . Iczkovits mixes real history, fable and the products of his imagination into an intoxicating, thoroughly enjoyable brew -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times * Yaniv Iczkovits' brilliant, sweeping novel is set in czarist Russia during the late nineteenth century, but feels highly relevant and resonant today . . . filled with exquisitely drawn characters . . . bold and provocative -- Elaine Margolin * TLS * A born storyteller . . . Iczkovits is clearly a talent to watch and The Slaughterman's Daughter is the place to start -- David Herman * Jewish Chronicle * Echoes of Russian and Yiddish literature resound in this delightful picaresque, but you need not hear them to enjoy it . . . Technicolour characters, pathos and humour are all wonderfully captured in a nimble translation from the Hebrew * Economist (Books of the Year, 2020) *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quercus Publishing
Illustrations
12 b&w
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 48 mm
Weight
760 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-85705-827-0 (9780857058270)
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
E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
MacLehose Press
€3.99
Available for download
Persons
Yaniv Iczkovits is an award-winning author and was formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv. His previous works include Pulse (2007), Adam and Sophie (2009) and Wittgenstein's Ethical Thought, based on his academic work, in 2012. In 2002, he was an inaugural signatory of the "combatants' letter", in which hundreds of Israeli soldiers affirmed their refusal to fight in the occupied territories, and he spent a month in military prison as a result. The Slaughterman's Daughter is his third novel and won the Ramat Gan Prize and the Agnon Prize in 2015, the first time the prize had been awarded in ten years. It was also shortlisted for the Sapir Prize. Yaniv Iczkovits previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University and lives with his family in Tel Aviv.