Angel Wagenstein Knihy

Když byli Židé vyhnáni ze Španělska, rozutekli se všemi možnými směry a zakotvili také na území dnešního Bulharska, kde někteří z nich zapustili kořeny. Nejinak tomu bylo v případě předků dědečka Ožungra, který v sousedské sounáležitosti s dalšími Židy, ale i Armény, Bulhary a Turky prožil na plovdivském předměstí celý svůj rozporuplný, leč svým způsobem šťastný život. A zplodil potomky, kteří mohou vyprávět, vzpomínat a hodnotit. Mohou se zamyslet nad neuvěřitelnou náboženskou i lidskou tolerancí, která tehdy panovala. Aniž by Wagenstein opakoval banální a všeobecně známou skutečnost, že strom vyrůstá z kořenů a je na nich v největší míře závislý, působivě a s grácií skutečného vypravěče konstatuje, že z některých kořenů vyrůstá strom vhodný leda na klacky, ale jsou i takové, z nichž vznikají housle což v určitém smyslu platí i pro lidi...

This novel is the saga in five parts of Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld, who grows up in Kolodetz, a small town near Lvov, which, when he’s a boy, belongs to the Hapsburg Empire, but which subsequently belongs to Poland, Soviet Russia, Germany, and then Russia again. Isaac survives the absurdity and horror of Eastern Europe during the 20th century by pretending to be a fool. If this is an old Jewish art, then Isaac is a consummate artist. He plays the fool all his life, from his boyhood in Kolodetz shetl to the time when he is an accused war criminal in a Gulag in Siberia. Inseparable from Isaac’s life and story are the Yiddish jokes and fables of Kolodetz. These and the counsel of his dear friend, the rabbi and chair of the atheist club in Kolodetz, Shmuel Ben David, sustain Isaac through two world wars, three concentration camps, and five motherlands. The book puts on record, with full art, what is perhaps the central story of the last one hundred years. It is a wise book.

A través de los ojos de Albert Cohen, búlgaro exiliado en Israel, Angel Wagenstein resucita el mundo de su infancia en Plóvdiv, una de las ciudades más bonitas y cosmopolitas de los Balcanes. Cohen regresa por unos días a Bulgaria para un congreso y el reencuentro con su ciudad natal y con sus gentes, a las que lleva años sin ver, le hace rememorar un mundo desaparecido. El recuerdo más intenso es el de su abuelo, el inolvidable Abraham el Borrachón —maestro hojalatero, fabulador genial y testigo del final de una época—, cuya figura le permitirá revivir algunos de los episodios más importantes de su infancia. Sin embargo, su ensoñación se verá interrumpida por algunos ineludibles reclamos del presente: un oscuro intento de especulación inmobiliaria, el encuentro con un antiguo amor o el conflicto de Oriente Próximo. Además de una magnífica novela, este nuevo libro de Angel Wagenstein —autor de El Pentateuco de Isaac y de Adiós, Shanghai— es un retrato sin concesiones de la Bulgaria contemporánea y un canto a su riquísimo pasado.

The narrative follows Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld, who navigates the tumultuous changes of his small town near Lvov through the 20th century, as it shifts between various regimes. To endure the chaos and horrors of Eastern Europe, Isaac adopts the role of a fool, mastering this old Jewish art throughout his life. From his childhood in Kolodetz to his later days as an accused war criminal in a Siberian Gulag, his journey explores themes of survival, identity, and the absurdity of existence in a fractured world.

Set against the tumult of World War II, the story follows four refugees—musicians Elisabeth and Theodore Weissberg, young film extra Hilde, and political fugitive Vladek—as they escape Nazi Germany for the chaotic haven of Shanghai. This vibrant city, a blend of wealth and poverty, becomes a refuge for Jewish artists and intellectuals striving to maintain their dignity and culture amidst hardship. Angel Wagenstein weaves a gripping tale of survival, love, and resilience, exploring the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Elisabeth and Theodore Weissberg, famous musicians, Hilde, a young film extra, and Vladek, an Eastern European adventurer wanted by the police on political charges, flee Nazi Germany for Shanghai at the onset of World War II. A magnet for every human ambition and vice, Shanghai is a city of extremes–of dazzling wealth and wretched poverty, suffering and pleasure, and, for the four refugees, exile and safety. There, they enter the world of Jewish refugees, many of them artists and intellectuals, who must either starve or eke out an impoverished and sometimes degraded living, but they are determined to live intelligently, upholding the high culture, humor, and even, insofar as they can, the elegance of their former lives. Master storyteller Angel Wagenstein crafts an intense narrative of life and death, passionate love, and profound courage against the backdrop of the war and the millions of lives caught up in it.