WINNER 2008 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

Manseau, the son of a former priest and nun and once a Yiddish archivist, uses an alter ego to tell the story of fictional Yiddish poet Itsik Malpesh, born the son of a goose-plucking factory manager during the Russian pogroms in 1903. Itsik's story is told through his Yiddish memoirs, which he helps a young American Catholic (working as a Yiddish archivist) translate. The intricate narrative weaves together Malpesh’s account of his “life and crimes,” including his job scrubbing floors, with the translator’s discoveries of the poet’s secret life, then and now.

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