From Powells.com
The Best Books of 2022 (So Far)
Staff Pick
I’m so glad I stumbled across this big, peculiar novel by Israeli author Yaniv Iczkovits. Set in Russia in the late 1800s, The Slaughterman’s Daughter follows a motley crew of characters — from a Jewish housewife on a mission to retrieve her sister’s husband, to a mute ex-soldier with a surprising past, to an accomplished spy in the twilight of his career — whose tangled journeys take them from small-town life to an army base that becomes a haven to the crowded streets of Minsk (and back again). Intricately plotted and masterfully executed, The Slaughterman’s Daughter is a rich and cunning tale. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
**Winner of the 2021 Wingate Literary Prize**
An irresistible, picaresque tale of two Jewish sisters in late-19th-century Russia, The Slaughterman’s Daughter is filled with “boundless imagination and a vibrant style” (David Grossman).
With her reputation as a vilde chaya (wild animal), Fanny Keismann isn’t like the other women in her shtetl in the Pale of Settlement — certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose “philosopher” of a husband, Zvi-Meir, has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children.
As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward her father’s profession of ritual slaughterer and, under his reluctant guidance, became a master with a knife. And though she long ago gave up that unsuitable profession — she’s now the wife of a cheesemaker and a mother of five — Fanny still keeps the knife tied to her right leg. Which might come in handy when, heedless of the dangers facing a Jewish woman traveling alone in czarist Russia, she sets off to track down Zvi-Meir and bring him home, with the help of the mute and mysterious ferryman Zizek Breshov, an ex-soldier with his own sensational past.
Yaniv Iczkovits spins a family drama into a far-reaching comedy of errors that will pit the czar’s army against the Russian secret police and threaten the very foundations of the Russian Empire. The Slaughterman’s Daughter is a rollicking and unforgettable work of fiction.
Review
“A story of great beauty and surprise. A necessary antidote for our times.” Gary Shteyngart
Review
“Occasionally a book comes along so fresh, strange, and original that it seems peerless, utterly unprecedented. This is one of those books.”
Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“With boundless imagination and a vibrant style, Iczkovits delivers a heroine of unforgettable grit. He wields his pen with wit and panache. A remarkable and evocative read.” David Grossman
About the Author
Yaniv Iczkovits is the author of Pulse, Adam and Sophie, and Wittgenstein’s Ethical Thought. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University and was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv. The Slaughterman’s Daughter was awarded the Ramat Gan Prize and the Agnon Prize; it was also shortlisted for the Sapir Prize. Iczkovits lives with his family in Tel Aviv.