Product Description

The first complete translation of an epic love story by the creator of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Yiddish humorist Sholem Aleichem as well as the 100th anniversary of the publication of Wandering Stars, his sprawling love story spanning ten years and two continents, and set in the colorful world of the Yiddish theater.

In a Russian shtetl at the end of the nineteenth century, Reisel, daughter of a poor cantor, and Leibel, son of a rich man, fall under the spell of a traveling Yiddish acting company. Together they run off to join the theater but quickly become separated. Reisel goes on to become Rosa Spivak, concert star, and Leibel becomes Leo Rafalesko, theatrical sensation. Kept apart by their own successes and by the managers who exploit their talent, they tour the world until their wanderings bring them both to New York. An engrossing romance, a great New York story, and an anthem for the theater, Wandering Stars is a long-lost literary classic, rediscovered here in a vibrant new translation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53201 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From The New Yorker
Best known for his stories of Tevye the Milkman, a character later brought to Broadway in “Fiddler on the Roof,” Sholem Aleichem was a Russian humorist sometimes referred to as “the Jewish Mark Twain.” In this romantic epic, previously available only in an abridgment, two lovers are enraptured when the Shchupak-Murovchik Yiddish theatre troupe arrives in their impoverished town, and they resolve to escape shtetl life and run off with the actors. Their gruelling journey takes them across continents and ends on New York’s Lower East Side, capturing, with whimsy and pathos, the experience of the Jewish diaspora at the beginning of the twentieth century. As one of the lovers tells the other the night they first meet, “Stars do not fall, stars wander.”
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About the Author
Sholem Aleichem is the pen name of Sholem Rabinovitch (1859–1916), the most beloved writer in Yiddish literature. Born in Russia, he fled the pogroms and immigrated to New York in 1905. His funeral procession was witnessed by 100,000 mourners.

Aliza Shevrin is the foremost translator of Sholem Aleichem, having translated eight other volumes of his fiction.

Tony Kushner is the Pulitzer Prize– winning playwright of Angels in America.

Customer Reviews

Sholem Aleichem's wit and humor isn't really allowed to shine through.
I was chomping at the bit to read this new translation of this, my favorite of the great Sholom Aleichem's books, but came away slightly disappointed. The gorgeous cover design and the new introduction by Tony Kushner make this volume worth having from a collector's point of view, but Ms. Shevrin's translation isn't, to my mind, notably different or better than the 1952 translation by Frances Butwin.

Translation is an iffy game, and there are very few who can capture not only the meaning, but the tone of the author. It's really an art form, and if you don't believe me, read Dostoevsky first translated by Constance Garnett (blech--stupefyingly boring) and then by Richard Pevear and Larisa Volokhonsky (hooray!). The difference is truly night and day.

Ms. Shevrin certainly does an efficient and workmanlike job, and she's to be commended for this--anyone who's helping to keep Yiddish literature alive does. But even this translation doesn't convey the earthiness, the tone, the wit, or the cadence of Sholem Aleichem's original Yiddish. The dialogue comes off as stilted, the author's ruminations on various topics come off as pompous rather than ironic, the insults sound more Shakespearean (and thus unfunny) than Yiddish, and the overall warm-hearted zaniness/sadness of the story is lost.

Still and all, it's a great read from a great author.

Great book, purchased for my dad
I purchased this book for my dad. He absolutely loves it. He is really into this author. I've almost purchased him everything he's every written.

Too pricey
Amazon charges a fortune for the kindle. The ought to cap the book prices at $9.99. I'll just buy a used one online