The People of the Book in the World of Books is a Russian bimonthly publication for serious readers with Jewish interests. Our English website includes only the summaries of the published articles. To access the complete text of them, please visit the Russian version of this website.


122

June 2016

This issue of the magazine includes:


• Sholem Aleichem Forever: A Late Short Story by an “Aspiring” Writer


The magazine features a Russian translation of Sholem Aleichem’s short story Iber a hitl (On Account of a Hat), written in 1913 when the writer was already famous all over the Jewish world and beyond. Still, as the translator argues in the introduction, Sholem Aleichem can be described as an “aspiring” writer during this period, as he was exploring new literary techniques, and this story was a clear manifestation of that quest. He was probably an aspiring writer in this sense until the end of his life. The short story Iber a hitl has never been published in Russian before.


Names: Mister Moishe and Others


The article analyzes prose works by Isaac Fridberg (born 1947), a Russian writer and filmmaker who launched his literary career in Soviet Lithuania during the late 1970s. According to the reviewer, Fridberg’s most interesting work is the autobiographic novel I Am Here! (1996), his only work where the subject of Jews was central. The action of the novel begins on March 5, 1953, the day when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. The main character, Mr. Moishe, thinks the whole world is crying on this day. After this dramatic prologue, we see the life of a typical Lithuanian Jew in the postwar Soviet Union. An important component of this life is the memory of family members who stayed in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation and were killed, and of the sufferings of those who managed to escape.


Looking through Russian Literary Magazines: Novels and Articles of Jewish Interest


Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: July–August 2016


Bibliography: 35 New Books