Have I got a story for you : more than a century of fiction from the Forward /

Starting in 1897 in New York City, the Forward is the most renowned Yiddish-language newspaper in the world. While Yiddish writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer have been translated into English, many of the contributors remained untranslated and unknown. The 42 stories collected here, including ten tales by women writers, have all been translated for the first time and are organized by themes such as immigration, modern times, war, and Eastern European life. With an introduction by novelist Dara Horn, this groundbreaking anthology is an important contribution to the understanding of the Jewish immigrant experience in America. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A new anthology gathers a centurys worth of fiction from a pre-eminent Yiddish publication.When the Forward began publishing news, editorials, literature, and essays in 1897, it became a haven for writers and readers of Yiddish not only in New York, where it was published, but also in much of Europe. It has since become the longest-lasting Yiddish newspaper in the United States. A vibrant, and vital, new anthology gathers fiction from across the Forwards long tenure. It seats luminaries like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sholem Asch, and Abraham Cahan (longtime editor of the Forward) alongside lesser-known figures like B. Kovner, Yente Serdatsky, and Miriam Raskin. Many of the stories, like those of Lyala Kaufman (daughter of the illustrious Sholem Aleichem), are here translated into English for the first time. With sections organized around various themes, such as Immigration and Its Discontents, Modern Times, which looks at shifting social and sexual mores, and World on Fire, with fiction inspired by the two world wars, the Ukrainian War of Independence, and other violent tragedies, the anthology provides a wide-ranging, comprehensive depiction of a centurys worth of experiences by American and European Jews. Many of the stories take the form of slight character sketches, like Roshelle Weprinskys Annie, which describes a factory workers yearning to provide her husband and children with comforts they cant afford. In Avrom Reyzens Who Will Prevail? a pompous young intellectual tries to win over his landladys daughter only to lose her to a more unequivocal tailor. Many of the stories have the edifying aspect of fables. If there is a certain sameness in narrative structure and literary style, this is forgivable, since Glinter, who edited the collection (and currently serves as deputy culture editor for the Forward) has selected such a diverse, wide-ranging group of writers. Women are well-represented here, as are the aging, the lonely, and the yearning. This is a crucial act of preservation: by archiving and translating into English this wealth of fiction, Glinter has helped to ensure the legacy of the Forward and its many brilliant contributors. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.