Jonah and Sarah
Jewish Stories of Russia and America

Cloth $24.95   |   ISBN 0-8156-0764-4   |   2003

Love, talent, and magic opposeand sometimes vanquishanti-Semitism, totalitarianism, and vulgarity in this collection of new and selected stories by David Shrayer-Petrov.

Reviews
"This is Shrayer-Petrov's seventeenth book and the twentieth in Syracuse University's Library of Modern Jewish Literature series. The author writes that these 13 stories bear testimony to 16 years of 'setting roots in my new country.' Almost half of the stories were written before 1987, when he and his family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the U. S. Spanning two decades of Jewish themes and characters, this collection retrospectively showcases about one-third of Shrayer-Petrov's short fiction. Three of the stories deal with love and marriage between Jews and Gentiles. Others concern such topics as anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, love, and alienation. Powerfully inventive and haunting, these are works of stunning imagination from a profoundly gifted storyteller."
George Cohen Booklist

"As long as there have been writers who offend power, there have been exiled writers. David Shrayer-Petrov, author of the rich and varied short stories in the collection titled "Jonah and Sarah: Jewish Stories of Russia and America" belongs to that mournful and honorable tradition. There are stories here expressing the inner exile of a Jewish Refusenik entwined in Russian literary forms but hostile to the "bastards" who run the Soviet system. There are satiric miniatures of actual exile, as in the story of a Russian writer fishing for his old self in Newport. And threaded throughout these ironic fictions are allusions to heroes of the author's literary homeland. The ghost of Pushkin puts in an appearance, Chekhov and Tolstoy flit by, and the attentive reader may sense the spirit of the master of the genre, Isaac Babel, hovering over every page."
The Boston Globe

"Shrayer-Petrov reminds us of the rich tradition of Russian literature. A brilliant writer now among us, he is worthy of continued attention."
The Providence Journal

"We have been waiting a long while for a new collection of Jewish tales to arrive and finally they are here. . . An excellent collection. . . Highly recommended."
Ray Bradbury

"A lively and artful set of stories. [Shrayer-Petrov's] sharp wit and deeply moving prose sweep us into ripping memories of a past awash with personal struggle against a fierce Soviet Union and through the strains and expectations of a new immigrant to America. . . Engaging insights, with colorful, unforgettable, characters. . . A triumph."
Rabbi Harvey J. Fields

DESTINY: A Poet Writers in His Father's Words
By David Reisch
Boston College Magazine Fall 2003

Stories that Travel Well
By Sean Smith
Boston College Chronicle 13 November 2003

"From Russia, With Love of Letters," and op-ed by David Shrayer-Petrov and Maxim D. Shrayer
The Providence Journal, April 21, 2004

"Brown professor, writer recalls life as a 'refusenik'"
by Andy Smitg
The Providence Journal, April 24, 2004

View and listen to a reading of Jonah and Sarah at Boston College by David Shrayer-Petrov and Maxim D. Shrayer

Description
From the deceptively simple narratives Apple Cider Vinegar and Hurricane Bob to the surrealist story Dismemberers and the magical tales Jonah and Sarah and Lanskoy Road, the tempo fluctuates, but throughout, David Shrayer-Petrov seamlessly preserves familiar voices. The stories have a genuine feel of the setting and epochthe Russian stories work as narratives of everyday life, while the American stories offer an accurate sense of an émigré's alienation.

Like all good works of fiction, these stories take on a mythic quality and transcend time and place. Each carries and communicates to the reader an aura of mystery, the enigma of love, and a meeting of Jewish past and present. Whether he invokes lyrical dialogue, gentle irony, or sharp polemical discourse, Shrayer-Petrov shows that he is a powerful presence in Russian and Jewish literature. For those interested in fiction about new immigrants to America or in the psychology of Jews in the two decades before the Soviet Union's collapse, this collection is a must read.

Author
David Shrayer-Petrov, a well-known contemporary Russian-American writer and medical scientist, has published sixteen books, including Herbert and Nelly, which was nominated for the Booker Russian Prize. His recent work includes a novel, Töstemaa Castle and a poetry collection, Form of Love.

Maxim D. Shrayer, the author's son, is professor of Russian and English at Boston College. His books include The World of Nabokov's Stories, Russian Poet/Soviet Jew, and An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature, 1800-2000.
Edited by Maxim D. Shrayer

51/2 x 81/2, 192 pages

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