The Yeshiva: A Novel
Apr 2027 · Schocken
Ebook
816
Pages
Tools
info
family_home
Eligible
info
infoThis book will become available on April 13, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
A monumental novel of faith and doubt—long regarded as Chaim Grade’s crowning achievement, this treasure of Yiddish literature stands as one of the great moral novels of the twentieth century, in the lineage of The Brothers Karamazov and The Magic Mountain.
Set in Lithuania between the world wars, The Yeshiva tells the story of Tsemakh Atlas, a brilliant and tormented Talmudist whose pursuit of ethical purity propels him from the cloistered intensity of religious study into the confusions and compromises of the wider world.
As Tsemakh moves from yeshiva to small town, from ascetic devotion to marriage and the entanglements of domestic life, Grade populates his world with scholars and shopkeepers, mystics and skeptics, saints and charlatans—from the charismatic and deceptive schoolteacher Bernard Frankel to Slava Stupel, Tsemakh’s restless wife, whose worldly wants threaten his ideals. With remarkable psychological precision and delightful, often unexpected humor, Grade traces how conviction hardens into pride, how righteousness can wound, and how moral clarity collides with love, desire, and human frailty.
Originally published in Yiddish in the late 1960s, and long out of print in English, The Yeshiva returns at a moment of renewed recognition for Chaim Grade, now widely celebrated as an essential chronicler of Jewish life before the Holocaust. With a profound new introduction by Justin Cammy, this reissue brings a long-recognized masterpiece back into view.
Set in Lithuania between the world wars, The Yeshiva tells the story of Tsemakh Atlas, a brilliant and tormented Talmudist whose pursuit of ethical purity propels him from the cloistered intensity of religious study into the confusions and compromises of the wider world.
As Tsemakh moves from yeshiva to small town, from ascetic devotion to marriage and the entanglements of domestic life, Grade populates his world with scholars and shopkeepers, mystics and skeptics, saints and charlatans—from the charismatic and deceptive schoolteacher Bernard Frankel to Slava Stupel, Tsemakh’s restless wife, whose worldly wants threaten his ideals. With remarkable psychological precision and delightful, often unexpected humor, Grade traces how conviction hardens into pride, how righteousness can wound, and how moral clarity collides with love, desire, and human frailty.
Originally published in Yiddish in the late 1960s, and long out of print in English, The Yeshiva returns at a moment of renewed recognition for Chaim Grade, now widely celebrated as an essential chronicler of Jewish life before the Holocaust. With a profound new introduction by Justin Cammy, this reissue brings a long-recognized masterpiece back into view.
A monumental novel of faith and doubt—long regarded as Chaim Grade’s crowning achievement, this treasure of Yiddish literature stands as one of the great moral novels of the twentieth century, in the lineage of The Brothers Karamazov and The Magic Mountain.
Set in Lithuania between the world war...
Discover more
About the author
CHAIM GRADE (1910–1982) is “one of the twentieth century’s preeminent writers of Yiddish fiction” (The New York Times). Born in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, Grade fled to New York after losing his first wife and mother to the Holocaust. With his second wife, Inna, he lived in the Bronx for the remainder of his life. Grade is the author of numerous works of poetry and prose, including the novels The Agunah, Rabbis and Wives, and Sons and Daughters.
CURT LEVIANT is an acclaimed novelist, literary critic, and the translator of works by major Yiddish authors including Sholom Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Lamed Shapiro. He is also the translator of Chaim Grade’s The Agunah.
CURT LEVIANT is an acclaimed novelist, literary critic, and the translator of works by major Yiddish authors including Sholom Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Lamed Shapiro. He is also the translator of Chaim Grade’s The Agunah.
CHAIM GRADE (1910–1982) is “one of the twentieth century’s preeminent writers of Yiddish fiction” (The New York Times). Born in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, Grade fled to New York after losing his first wife and mother to the Holocaust. With his second wife, Inna, he lived in the Bronx for the...
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
