Whether set in Maxim Shrayer’s native Russia or in North America andWestern Europe, the eight stories in this collection explore emotionallyintricate relationships that cross traditional boundaries of ethnicity, religion,and culture. Tracing the lives, obsessions, and aspirations of Jewish-Russianimmigrants, these poignant, humorous, and tender stories create anexpansive portrait of individuals struggling to come to terms with ghosts oftheir European pasts while simultaneously seeking to build new lives in theirAmerican present.The title story follows Jake Glaz, a young Jewish man apprehensiveabout intermarriage to a Catholic woman. After realizing Erin will not convert,Jake leaves the United States to spend Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, “abeautiful place for a Jew to atone.” In “Sonetchka,” a literary scholar andhis former Moscow girlfriend reunite in her suburban Connecticut apartment.As they reminisce about their Soviet youth and quietly admire eachother’s professional successes, both wrestle with the curious mix of prosperity,loneliness, and insecurity that defines their lives in the United States.Yom Kippur in Amsterdam takes the immigrant narrative into the twentyfirstcentury. Emerging from the tradition of Isaac Babel, Vladimir Nabokov,and Isaac Bachevis Singer, Shrayer’s vibrant literary voice significantlycontributes to the evolution of Jewish writing in America.

Product Description: Beyond the Pale follows the lives of two women: Gutke Gurvich, who apprentices as a midwife in a Russian Jewish settlement before immigrating to New York and joining the suffrage and labor movements; and Chava Meyer, a Russian Jew whose birth is attended by Gutke...read more

Russian refugee Viktoria Gunsburg comes to Virginia as the bride of an American serviceman, but her marriage begins to disintegrate in the face of his wealthy family's disapproval and betrayal. Reprint. K.

Product Description: Beyond the Pale―winner of the Lambda Literary Award―tells the stories of two Jewish women living through times of darkness and inhumanity in the early 20th century, capturing their undaunted love and courage in luminous and moving prose...read more