Translated by Channa Kleinerman Goldstein

In the world of Jewish literature, Chaim Grade is an open secret, a treasure waiting to be discovered, "one of the greatest—if not the greatest of contemporary Yiddish novelists," in the words of Elie Wiesel. In this memoir, Grade remembers his youth in Vilna, Lithuania, and pays tribute to his mother, a pious woman, who raised her son alone and worked herself to the bone as a fruit peddler, but never forgot the holiness of the Sabbath. Her spiritual fervor is imparted to the young Grade—though not her religiosity.

Grade weaves Sabbath scenes into all of his vignettes to get at the heart of the shtetl community.

Paperback, 400 pp.

ISBN: 1568219628
ISBN-13: 9781568219622