{"product_id":"from-a-distant-relation-9780815611363","title":"From a Distant Relation","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn his short life (1865-1921), Mikhah Yosef Berdichevsky was a versatile and influential man of letters: an innovative Hebrew prose stylist; a collector of Jewish folklore; a scholar of ancient Jewish and Christian history. He was at once a peer of Friedrich Nietzsche, the Brothers Grimm, and a diverse circle of Jewish writers in the Russian Empire and German-speaking countries. As a Yiddish writer, however, he remains unknown to gen-eral readers. Written in 1902-1906, but not published in full until the 1920s, his stories were dismissed by prominent critics and viewed as out of step with the literary taste of his own time. Yet these vivid portraits of a small Jewish town (\u003ci\u003eshtetl)\u003c\/i\u003e in the southern Russian Empire can speak powerfully to new audiences today. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith enchanting humor, social satire, and verbal dexterity, \u003ci\u003eFrom a Distant Relation \u003c\/i\u003ecaptures the world of the \u003ci\u003eshtetl\u003c\/i\u003e in a sharp realist prose style. Themes of repressed desire, poverty, relations with non-Jews, and historic upheavals echo in a cast of memorable characters. Many of the stories and monologues feature strong female protago-nists, while others shed light on misogyny in the culture of the shtetl. At the border between fiction and reportage, with a gritty underbelly and a deceptive naïveté, Berdichevsky's stories explore dynamics of wealth, power, and gender in an intimate setting that resonates profoundly with contemporary Jewish life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Syracuse University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/15\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780815611363\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 448\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs","brand":"Mikhah Yosef Berdichevsky","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41352456634549,"sku":"9780815611363","price":8.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_a6c18602-72ed-40ec-8749-66d63e3dd957.jpg?v=1637033897","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/from-a-distant-relation-9780815611363","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}