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Product Details
Free Press, September 2008
Hardcover, 384 pages
ISBN-10: 1416538704
ISBN-13: 9781416538707
Description
Itsik Malpesh was born the son of a goose-plucking factory manager during the Russian pogroms - his life saved on the night it began by the young daughter of a kosher slaughterer. Or so he believes...
Exiled during the war, Itsik eventually finds himself in New York, working as a typesetter and writing poetry to his muse, the butcher's daughter, whom he is sure he will never see again. But it is here in New York that Itsik is unexpectedly reunited with his greatest love - and, later, his greatest enemy - with results both serendipitous and tragic. His story is recounted in his memoirs thanks to the most unlikely of translators - a twenty-one-year-old Boston Catholic college student who, in meeting Itsik, has embarked upon a great lie that will define his future and the most extraordinary friendship he'll ever know.
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"An extraordinary novel, and Itsik Malpesh is one of literature's most stunning achievements."
-- Junot Díaz
"Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is a completely original and exciting novel that, from its first few lines, holds the reader mesmerised. We are in the hands of a supreme storyteller, an author of wit and charm, one who has a breathtaking flair for language. This is a seriously impressive and accomplished work for a debut novel, identifying Manseau as a writer of great and exciting potential, one able to see the world vividly, even through other people's eyes."
-- Weekend Australian
"In his debut novel, [Manseau] reaches across cultures to compose a living, breathing portrait of a bad-tempered but charmingly eloquent poet and the young man chosen to bring his words forward in time...The translator's inexperience puts [poet] Malpesh's cynical voice into perspective, as the young man's clumsy first experiences with modern-day romance stand in stark, sometimes poignant contrast to Malpesh...who remembers his 90-something years with equal parts impish humor and profound melancholy...A terrific book with a believable protagonist who's given ample room to tell his tale."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is a book about writing, a warm, funny, and fascinating testament to the power of words, a power that outlives a dying language and transcends love."
-- Jewish Book World
"Seductive and playful, the novel, with many unforgettable scenes, is also a serious meditation on language, love, loyalty and memory."
-- New York Jewish Week
"Ranging from pogroms to poetry, from the purity of sex to the impurity of translation, from the Pale of Settlement to the Lower East Side to Eretz Yisroael, [and] written with utmost integrity as well as dramatic momentum, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is a delicious read."
-- Melvin Jules Bukiet, author of Sign and Wonders
"One of the most original and gripping novels I've read in a long time. From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a mesmerizing storyteller and born writer. Blessed with a biting wit, a huge heart, and a dazzling flair for language -- how we use it and how it defines us -- Manseau is the real thing. This is a gorgeous debut novel."
-- Ellen Feldman, author of The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank
"Huge in scope and soul, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is a sweeping, lyrical, utterly consuming epic. Peter Manseau is a writer with the heart of a mystic, and his novel is an extraordinary gift."
-- Elisa Albert, author of The Book of Dahlia and How This Night Is Different
"Songs for the Butcher's Daughter explores with profound insight the treacherous territory of language: its elusive, inconstant and enigmatic character and its fundamental role in how we define ourselves as human beings."
-- Linda Olsson, author of Astrid and Veronika
"Peter Manseau has created a rich tapestry of European and American Jewish life at the turn of the twentieth century. This beautifully written novel of love and tragedy is a magic-realist tale filled with wonderful detail. We join Mr. Manseau on a hundred-year journey that weaves together the Old and New Worlds."
-- Martin Lemelman, author of Mendel's Daughter
"Manseau paints an intimate picture of the times, filled with Yiddish idiosyncrasies and an eerily innate understanding of the circumstances, yet the story remains unsentimental, always with a whiff of Yiddish humour.... [Songs for the Butcher's Daughter] is a powerful story that will resonate with... those who have been touched by their own migration or that of their ancestors."
-- Australian Jewish News
"In a word: Sweeping."
-- Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin
"First-time novelist Manseau cleverly brings the story of the now-elderly poet together with that of the young Jewish imposter. Along the way, we are treated to a wonderful view of how it was to be a Jewish immigrant in New York. This a warm and heartfelt story about people who find hope through love, even when that love is impossible. Highly recommended."
-- BookLoon
"[I]f you want a big theme book that is both engrossing and well written, you need look no further."
-- Booktopia
"Songs for the Butcher's Daughter reads like a thriller. Gracefully written, Manseau offers an exhilarating exploration of violence and religion, a glimpse of a dying culture being remade, and a look at what Yiddish means...a remarkable accomplishment."
-- Moment
"There are two extraordinary things about Peter Manseau's Songs for the Butcher's Daughter; the first is the novel, the second is the author himself. This is a wonderful book, easy for anybody to read, which will give a thrilling insight into the depth and sophisticated culture of the six million people whose lives were truncated by the madness of Nazism."
-- The Australian
"[A] racketing story, an artful meditation on the joys and perils of translation, and a lyrical tribute to Yiddish culture, with its zany humour and shadow lines of sorrow."
-- The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
"[Manseau's] book is an intellectual journey, it is also a love story."
-- Washington Jewish Week
"Rooted in the sharp, bittersweet Yiddish tradition reminiscent of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Manseau's thrilling tale of secrets and revelations captures the diversity among Jews, then and now, in shtetl, city, and kibbutz, and the elemental meaning of bashert, or destiny."
-- Booklist
"[Cleverly] narrated."
-- Library Journal
Washington Post, March 27, 2009
...Mystery competition. Barnes & Noble Booksellers - Spectrum Center, 1851 Fountain Dr., Reston. 703-437-9490. Free. 6 P.M. Peter Manseau, author of the debut novel Songs for the Butcher's Daughter (winner of a National Jewish Book Award), ...
Metro.co.uk, February 18, 2009
...Book Of The Week: Songs For The Butcher?s Daughter by Peter Manseau (Simon & Schuster, £14.99) Songs For The Butcher?s Daughter This debut novel has plenty in common with Jonathan Safran Foer ...
NPR, January 10, 2009
...NPR's Scott Simon talks with Peter Manseau about his first novel, 'Songs for the Butcher's Daughter,' in which a young man befriends the last living Yiddish poet ...
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