The Zelmenyaners - by Moyshe Kulbak (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This is the first complete English-language translation of a classic of Yiddish literature, one of the great comic novels of the twentieth century. The Zelmenyaners describes the travails of a Jewish family in Minsk that is torn asunder by the new Soviet reality. Four generations are depicted in riveting and often uproarious detail as they face the profound changes brought on by the demands of the Soviet regime and its collectivist, radical secularism. The resultant intergenerational showdowns- including disputes over the introduction of electricity, radio, and electric trolley- are rendered with humor, pathos, and a finely controlled satiric pen. Moyshe Kulbak, a contemporary of the Soviet Jewish writer Isaac Babel, picks up where Sholem Aleichem left off a generation before, exploring in this book the transformation of Jewish life.

Review Quotes

"Kulbak's work is a masterpiece for reasons that have little to do with its context. His characters are funny and pathetic, his prose delicate and inventive. His novel ushers the reader not into Soviet Belorussia, but into a world entirely its own. Like a Zelmenyaner itself, it turns reality into dream." - Ezra Glinter, The Forward "Kulbak never quite manages to dampen the novel's subversive spirit, which is reinforced delightfully in Hillel Halkin's impeccable translation." - Bryan Cheyette, The Times Literary Supplement "The Zelmenyaners...is both thoroughly enjoyable to read and invaluable on many levels. The novel offers a rare view of Jewish life in the early Soviet period in Belarus, a place that briefly offered exciting opportunities for Yiddish culture." - Madeleine Cohen, In geveb "Though it's def­i­nite­ly com­ic satire (and laugh out loud fun­ny), the tone of The Zel­menyan­ers is always more sweet than sour. Kul­bak brings a poignan­cy to his obser­va­tions of a fam­i­ly, and a place, for which he clear­ly feels much affection." - Rokhl Kafrissen, Jewish Book Council

About the Author

Moyshe Kulbak (1896-1937) was a leading Yiddish modernist poet, novelist, and dramatist. He is the author of Childe Harold of Dysna and The Messiah of the House of Ephraim, among other works. He was arrested and executed in 1937, during the wave of Stalinist repression that hit dozens of Yiddish and other writers and cultural activists throughout Soviet Belarus.
Hillel Halkin, an acclaimed translator of Hebrew and Yiddish fiction, is the author of A Strange Death (2005), Yehuda Halevi (2010), and Melisande! What Are Dreams? (2013), among others. Sasha Senderovich is the author of How the Soviet Jew Was Made (2022). He teaches at the University of Washington, Seattle.