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Daniel Stein, Interpreter, a novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya (2006)
2021 Kulturhuset Stadsteatern's international literature prize finalist (Sweden)
National Literary Prize BIG BOOK (2007, Russia)
Russian Booker of the Decade nominee (2011)Rights sold: Australia - SCRIBE, Bulgaria - PARADOX, Croatia - FRAKTURA, Czech Republic – PASEKA, Estonia - TANAPAEV, France – GALLIMARD, Georgia - Academic Press, Germany – HANSER, DTV, Hungary – MAGVETO, Italy – BOMPIANI, Japan – SHINCHOSHA, Korea - Moonji, Lithuania – JOTEMA, Macedonia - ANTOLOG, Poland - Świat Książki (Weltbild Polska), Romania – HUMANITAS FICTION, Russia - EKSMO, AST, Serbia – PAIDEIA, Slovakia – SLOVART, Slovenia – LITERA, Spain - ALBA, Sweden - ERSATZ, USA - OVERLOOK PRESS, Ukraine - FOLIO, World Esperanto - ARS LIBRI
Ludmila Ulitskaya, a mature master working in the best vein of the Russian literary tradition, has written a novel that poses an ageless moral question: What is good? Where is true virtue? She comes to the conclusion that the real marker of what is good is good itself, that is to act and be good, making the religious beliefs and internal contradictions of each of us secondary to this main moral principle.
DANIEL STEIN is at once a skilfully crafted literary roman epistolaire, a philosophical tale, a profound historical survey and an entertaining piece of fiction. It covers wide geographical areas – Germany, Israel, the US, Russia – and dramatic historical epochs - from the Second World War in Warsaw to modern Israel. It enters into deep historical detail: the tragedy of Holocaust, the rise and fall of Communism and, even more important, it gives a new reading to the role of Christianity. Far from being commonplace this novel breaks new ground and ventures boldly into a new literary spaces pulling down many established “rules” of literary form along the way.
The book is constructed as a patchwork of private histories recounted through the letters, personal diaries, taped conversations and a liberal supply of official notes, interrogation reports, documents and letters of formal complaints to the authorities. The element that links all of theses sources, the core of this multi-faceted narrative gem, is the story of DANIEL STEIN, the common thread woven throughout the lives of each of the book’s characters.
Daniel Stein, is a Polish Jew, who survives the Holocaust by disguising himself as a Gestapo interpreter and translator. This charade allows him to not only save himself, but to help save hundreds of human lives by sharing vital information with those whose in peril. After WWII Daniel converts to Christianity, is ordained, enters the Order of Barefoot Carmelites and emigrates to Israel where he creates a Christian community; this is one of many times throughout his life when Daniel makes the difficult choice to swim against the current.But the story of DANIEL STEIN, is not the story of Brother Daniel alone. Rather, Daniel is that connecting thread; a string on which other peoples lives are threaded like multicolored pearls. The novel presents us with a wealth of wonderful characters, and each is portrayed with the richness of detail that is so typical of Ulitskaya’s literary style. Each character is created by Ulitskaya with deep psychological insight and an understanding so profound that the reader is given the impression that at any second, any moment, the plot—as with life itself—might unfold in any direction. But…alas.... the Writer can choose only one path. (Yet all the other directions are still there, living as a tree’s branches each ready to stem off into a new direction and into a new book.)
The novel abounds in gentle humor with a touch of paradox: among the many extraordinary characters in this novel is a young German woman, who is obsessed with the idea of her nation’s guilt, but at the same time absorbed with the Christian idea of holiness. She falls in love with a young Arab, who is an erudite and profound scholar of Judaica. An old German communist mother, survives through the care of a Hebrew hospice, finding peace from a deep moral crisis through the Christian faith. Every character in the book faces some sort of moral crisis, every civilization is at a turning point, the book a precise sketch of so many of the big questions and conflicts of modern culture: the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, historical aspects of the life of Jesus Christ, the Jewish question and the coexistence of today’s residents of Israel (Catholics, Jews, Arabs, Poles, Germans, and others), violence and soullessness of the modern life.
We should also not ignore the fact that the book draws from a sound biographical basis, as the character of DANIEL STEIN is inspired by the life of Oswald Rufeisen, the real Brother Daniel, who was a Carmelite Monk, lived at the Stella Maris monastery on Mount Carmel in Haifa, died in Israel in 1998.
It is interesting to note that Ludmila Ulitskaya drew her inspiration for DANIEL STEIN from a story from the Bible, the story in which, on Pentecostal Sunday, the apostles are granted the gift to speak languages that were before unknown to them. Daniel’s ability and willingness to speak with everyone is his true language - a symbol of love, humanity, and tolerance. Ulitskaya beautifully renders the life, the extraordinary warmth and humanness of this modern saint, who inevitably ends his life as a martyr, the victim of his own will to help others at all costs.
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TIERRA ADELANTE! a novel by Andrei Kofman
Rights sold: Russia - SOFIA
Winner of the DREAM BOOK National Literary Award (2006, Russia)
A breathtaking story of Spanish colonization of the Americas. Adventure novel for children and young adults by Andrei Kofman
It was in the first part of XVIth century. A new continent was already discovered, and people began to call Europe THE OLD WORLD as opposed to a NEW one, which to many seemed to be full of mysteries and enchantment, a promised land of unimaginable wonders capable to fulfill any human desire. Precisely in search of these miracles Spanish noble marquise Don Alonso de Santillana and his anecdotic crew composed exclusively of whitebeards and cripples sale towards the New Lands. An aged romantic crackpot, a knight errant and passionate lover of chivalry novels, Don Alonso winds up his rich Sevillian estate, and uses all his dough to fit up a ship and to organize an expedition to a New Continent. He and his crew are consolidated by overwhelming belief in miracles of the New World, while all reasonable-minded inhabitants of Seville make merry over their craze.
Don Alonso de Santillana proved to have more luck than his compatriot Don Quixote. Together with his brave crew he managed to discover a multitude of never before explored islands and countries. More important of all, with their very own eyes they saw all the marvels of the world: the giants, who turned out to be wild but quite peaceful folk, the beautiful female warriors, amazons, whom Don Alonso's personal barber revealed all the secrets of Old World beauty and cosmetic culture. On their journey the travelers run into a race of dog-headed people, saw live headless people, sea sirens, dragons etc. Finally they made it to their destination and bathed in the magical water of the Spring of the Eternal Youth, recovering their young age and beauty. Unfortunately, they were the last ones who had an opportunity to enjoy the miracle: a local Indian who showed them to the Spring destroyed it in order not to share this marvel with cruel conquistadores.
Each of Don Alonso's companions finds the most desired, and each one of them is compensated deservedly. Rejuvenated marquise finds his Dame, and only these two are permitted to pass through the gates of the Earthly Heaven. Captain Sancho, a passionate sea wolf, chooses to stay forever on his ship. And Padre Galindo, a monk, lives a long and fruitful life and writes down a chronicle of their miraculous journey.
TERRA ADELANTE! by Andrei Kofman is an adventure novel following the best traditions of the genre. His book features a richness of detail, while it's tonality and rhythmical pattern are close to a modern young reader. Informational "inserts" into a novel's narrative body (as author himself claims, these might be omitted while reading) represent the most interesting and sometimes unexpected historical facts and explanations. For example, Kofman explains the origins of $ symbol and what connection it bears to a national coat-of-arms of Spanish Kingdom, or describes the evolution of geographical maps and why Middle Age navigators were always finding not what they were looking for. Author gives a detailed account of real conquistador's expeditions in search of magical creatures and their discoveries.
For example, did you know that
- the longest river in the world was named by Spanish conquistadors Amazon River after a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors?
- the name California was taken by Spanish conquistadors from XVI-century popular chivalric romance ‘Espladián’s Adventures’?
- the Fountain of Youth, a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters, is said to be located in Florida, and stories of the fountain are dating back to Spanish conquest time?