This audiobook starts with a fairly light tone as a marital crisis leads to the abrupt rediscovery of a small Jewish town in Poland. Kreskol has fallen out of history, missing the last century, or more. But as history and modernity force themselves on its inhabitants, including the Holocaust and the continuing reality of anti-Semitism, the story gradually gets darker. Narrator Steven Jay Cohen matches the mood in all its shifts, and keeps the Polish and Yiddish accents subtle. Yankel Lewinkopf, who gradually becomes the central character, is a particular challenge, but Cohen shows him retaining his innocence even as he develops a downbeat worldly wisdom. There is a glossary at the end, but most of the vocabulary can be understood through context. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
The Lost Shtetl: A Novel
Narrated by Steven Jay Cohen
Max GrossUnabridged — 13 hours, 47 minutes
The Lost Shtetl: A Novel
Narrated by Steven Jay Cohen
Max GrossUnabridged — 13 hours, 47 minutes
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Overview
A remarkable debut novel-written with the fearless imagination of Michael Chabon and the piercing humor of Gary Shteyngart-about a small Jewish village in the Polish forest that is so secluded no one knows it exists . . . until now.
What if there was a town that history missed?
For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.
Pesha Lindauer, who has just suffered an ugly, acrimonious divorce, suddenly disappears. A day later, her husband goes after her, setting off a panic among the town elders. They send a woefully unprepared outcast named Yankel Lewinkopf out into the wider world to alert the Polish authorities.
*Venturing beyond the remote safety of Kreskol, Yankel is confronted by the beauty and the ravages of the modern-day outside world - and his reception is met with a confusing mix of disbelief, condescension, and unexpected kindness. When the truth eventually surfaces, his story and the existence of Kreskol make headlines nationwide.*
Returning Yankel to Kreskol, the Polish government plans to reintegrate the town that time forgot. Yet in doing so, the devious origins of its disappearance come to the light. And what has become of the mystery of Pesha and her former husband? Divided between those embracing change and those clinging to its old world ways, the people of Kreskol will have to find a way to come together . . .* or risk their village disappearing for good.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editorial Reviews
★ 06/22/2020
Gross’s lively and imaginative debut novel (after the memoir The Mensch Handbook) portrays a Jewish village in eastern Poland that’s been isolated throughout the 20th century. The residents of Kreskol survive pogroms and the hateful superstitions of Christian neighbors (“For generations the priests had said that we poisoned drinking wells.... Or, alternatively, that we used the blood of Christian children in our matzahs, depending on which priest you consulted”), and remain unaware of modern technology and culture. Outside contact is limited to occasional visits from a Roma caravan until a recently divorced Kreskol woman runs away, her ex-husband follows, and baker’s apprentice Yankel Lewinkopf is sent by the rabbi to find them. Traveling with the Roma, Yankel reaches the city of Smolskie, where his confusion and strange behavior land him in a mental ward. Doctors think Yankel may be delusional when he talks about his village, while Yankel has an equally hard time believing the doctors who tell him about the Holocaust. Finally, Yankel is helicoptered back home, accompanied by officials and reporters, and Kreskol must contend with its new fame and all the attendant complications. The narrator, a present-day villager, is well versed in Jewish traditions and human foibles, alternately reminiscent of early Isaac Bashevis Singer and a Catskills comedian. Gross’s entertaining, sometimes disquieting tale delivers laugh-out-loud moments and deep insight on human foolishness, resilience, and faith. (Oct.)
"Witty and sagacious....The persistence of anti-Semitism after the Holocaust has been an enduring theme for American writers, from Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth to more contemporary writers like Michael Chabon, Shalom Auslanderand Steve Stern. Gross earns a spot in that company....People want to know about a place that escaped a slaughter, which frees Gross to write a fine and often funny speculative novel. But he knows people are less eager to confront the roots of that slaughter, which makes “The Lost Shtetl” a potent cautionary tale as well. — USA Today
"A gorgeous debut." — New York Post
"[A] dose of fabulism may be the best cure yet for a psychologically intolerable contemporary moment…[The Lost Shtetl is] a riveting narrative about the costs of living in one’s own time as opposed to the benefits and disadvantages of living in a “lost horizon” that has been overlooked by the contemporary world. It’s filled with a slew of intriguing characters….If this novel doesn’t take your mind off being holed up in a shuttered-down city or trying to escape the reality of the pandemic by socially distancing somewhere in the country, nothing will." — Vogue
"Lively and imaginative.... alternately reminiscent of early Isaac Bashevis Singer and a Catskills comedian. Gross’s entertaining, sometimes disquieting tale delivers laugh-out-loud moments and deep insight on human foolishness, resilience, and faith." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[G]reat fun, packed with warmth, humor, and delightful Yiddish expressions....Reaching into the storytelling tradition that stretches from Sholem Aleichem to Isaac Bashevis Singer to Michael Chabon, the author spins an ingenious yarn about the struggle between past and present." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“I was blown away…. ‘The Lost Shtetl’ is a Jewish fantasy in the vein of Michael Chabon’s ‘The Yiddish Policemen’s Union’ and Steve Stern’s Jewish magical realism novels. There are even echoes of Simon Rich’s New Yorker story, ‘Sell Out,’ about a time-travelling Orthodox Jewish immigrant, soon to be the major motion picture ‘An American Pickle’ starring, yes, Seth Rogen…..The novel’s narrator, a kind of first-person collective, sounds both contemporary and folkloric, as if one of the great Yiddish writers had somehow survived, like Kreskol, to tell its story. ‘The Lost Shtetl’ stands on its own.” — Jewish Week
"Gross is hilariously funny as he weaves this story....We laugh, but… do we? Yes. The miracle of this book is that it provokes theories about its intention and doesn’t let you stop trying to figure them out.” — Literary Hub
“Novelist Max Gross poses precisely this question in The Lost Shtetl. Gross’ debut novel unfolds with a transfixing, howlingly funny and achingly sad tale of incompatible cultures colliding with the looping, shaggy dog humor of Jonas Jonasson, and delightful echoes of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and Woody Allen’s Sleeper.” — New York Journal of Books
“Judging by The Lost Shtetl, his brilliant debut novel, author Max Gross is the metaphysical love child of Sholem Aleichem and J.K. Rowling." — Hadassah Magazine
‘With warmth and charm, Gross spins a resonant and poignant tale of village life complete with gossip and matchmakers" — The National Book Review
"[A] dose of fabulism may be the best cure yet for a psychologically intolerable contemporary moment…[The Lost Shtetl is] a riveting narrative about the costs of living in one’s own time as opposed to the benefits and disadvantages of living in a “lost horizon” that has been overlooked by the contemporary world. It’s filled with a slew of intriguing characters….If this novel doesn’t take your mind off being holed up in a shuttered-down city or trying to escape the reality of the pandemic by socially distancing somewhere in the country, nothing will."
"Gross is hilariously funny as he weaves this story....We laugh, but… do we? Yes. The miracle of this book is that it provokes theories about its intention and doesn’t let you stop trying to figure them out.
Judging by The Lost Shtetl, his brilliant debut novel, author Max Gross is the metaphysical love child of Sholem Aleichem and J.K. Rowling."
"A gorgeous debut."
I was blown away…. ‘The Lost Shtetl’ is a Jewish fantasy in the vein of Michael Chabon’s ‘The Yiddish Policemen’s Union’ and Steve Stern’s Jewish magical realism novels. There are even echoes of Simon Rich’s New Yorker story, ‘Sell Out,’ about a time-travelling Orthodox Jewish immigrant, soon to be the major motion picture ‘An American Pickle’ starring, yes, Seth Rogen…..The novel’s narrator, a kind of first-person collective, sounds both contemporary and folkloric, as if one of the great Yiddish writers had somehow survived, like Kreskol, to tell its story. ‘The Lost Shtetl’ stands on its own.
Novelist Max Gross poses precisely this question in The Lost Shtetl. Gross’ debut novel unfolds with a transfixing, howlingly funny and achingly sad tale of incompatible cultures colliding with the looping, shaggy dog humor of Jonas Jonasson, and delightful echoes of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
‘With warmth and charm, Gross spins a resonant and poignant tale of village life complete with gossip and matchmakers"
"Witty and sagacious....The persistence of anti-Semitism after the Holocaust has been an enduring theme for American writers, from Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth to more contemporary writers like Michael Chabon, Shalom Auslanderand Steve Stern. Gross earns a spot in that company....People want to know about a place that escaped a slaughter, which frees Gross to write a fine and often funny speculative novel. But he knows people are less eager to confront the roots of that slaughter, which makes “The Lost Shtetl” a potent cautionary tale as well.
"Witty and sagacious....The persistence of anti-Semitism after the Holocaust has been an enduring theme for American writers, from Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth to more contemporary writers like Michael Chabon, Shalom Auslanderand Steve Stern. Gross earns a spot in that company....People want to know about a place that escaped a slaughter, which frees Gross to write a fine and often funny speculative novel. But he knows people are less eager to confront the roots of that slaughter, which makes “The Lost Shtetl” a potent cautionary tale as well.
This audiobook starts with a fairly light tone as a marital crisis leads to the abrupt rediscovery of a small Jewish town in Poland. Kreskol has fallen out of history, missing the last century, or more. But as history and modernity force themselves on its inhabitants, including the Holocaust and the continuing reality of anti-Semitism, the story gradually gets darker. Narrator Steven Jay Cohen matches the mood in all its shifts, and keeps the Polish and Yiddish accents subtle. Yankel Lewinkopf, who gradually becomes the central character, is a particular challenge, but Cohen shows him retaining his innocence even as he develops a downbeat worldly wisdom. There is a glossary at the end, but most of the vocabulary can be understood through context. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
★ 2020-07-29
A tiny Polish village the Nazis somehow missed remains disconnected from the modern world—until an unhappy newlywed tears out of town.
“It would have been intoxicating to anyone who had the least amount of interest in World War II and the Holocaust…to delve into an unambiguously happy [story].” So proclaims a scholar writing about Kreskol, a village in Poland, after it emerges from nearly a century of total isolation and anonymity to become a national cause célèbre. If Gross’ debut novel is not an unambiguously happy story—not only the Holocaust, but the random cruelty of fate and the general stupidity of humankind have fingers in the pie—it is great fun, packed with warmth, humor, and delightful Yiddish expressions. (Only to be expected from the author of the memoir From Schlub to Stud: How To Embrace Your Inner Mensch and Conquer the Big City, 2008.) Reaching into the storytelling tradition that stretches from Sholem Aleichem to Isaac Bashevis Singer to Michael Chabon, the author spins an ingenious yarn about the struggle between past and present. The narrator is a nameless townsperson from Kreskol, which as the novel opens seems to be from another era, a sweet Jewish village with matchmakers and farmers and open-air markets, several synagogues and plenty of gossip. But one day a spirited beauty named Pesha Lindauer decides she cannot put up with the putz she’s recently married for one more minute. “This was not exactly a surprise to most of the people in our town,” says the narrator, who often uses the collective “we” in a way reminiscent of Tova Mirvis’ The Ladies Auxiliary. Pesha is the first person to leave Kreskol in a very long time, and eventually the town elders send the mamzer (technically, bastard) Yankel Lewinkopf after her. Yankel is an unlikely but endearing hero, and his adventures in the world of smartphones and underarm deodorant unfold in unexpected, entertaining, and sometimes very sad ways. “What was the point of freedom in a town like Kreskol, where everyone knows one another’s business and his future was more or less written already?” This seemingly light fable may leave you meditating on serious questions.
Imaginative and philosophical, funny and sad, old and new—mazel tov, Mr. Gross.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173296665 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 10/13/2020 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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