Verklempt

A longtime journalist and politician, Sichrovsky writes with a crisp prose that makes his everyday characters real, with a touch of humor and subtle points about what being Jewish means today. This is a strong collection...The pieces here are memorable and diverse, making Verklempt an excellent English-language introduction to the author's fiction. --Foreword Reviews Moving and engaging...[Sichrovsky] set[s] up ...intriguing narratives and metaphors. --Asymptote Journal A touching, thoughtful, and powerful read; Sichrovsky's insights into people's secrets, regrets, and consciences are artfully divulged. Verklempt certainly lives up to its title. --Jewish Book World John Howard's translation is clear, clean, and straightforward. His word choices are simple and direct, resisting the temptation for sentimentality that such subject matter holds. I was especially impressed by the way he conveyed the different patterns of speech that characterize people of different ages and geographical descents. There is no confusing his elderly Austrian aunt with his Brooklynite Jewish mother. --Yardenne Greenspan, Asymptote Journal Intense existential stories with uplifting conclusions about people, torn by past conflicts and histories, who are coming to terms with the flow of everyday life through fulfillment of their desires. --Ivan Margolius, author of Reflections of Prague: Journeys Through the 20th Century Somewhere in every story there is a real person. These stories are based on facts. But they are not documentations. They reflect hopes, fears and indifference. Every story is true, as true as a story can be. --Author's Preface to the English Edition 'Verklempt', Yiddish slang, means 'choked with emotion.' In his latest collection of stories, internationally best-selling author Peter Sichrovsky aggressively dismantles post-Holocaust Jewish identity. These are love stories where love is a bitter pill, a joke, a missed chance at happiness, a secret, a ghost, or a longing to be with a person one cannot even remember. Sichrovsky writes without embellishment, spare outlines of characters that feel familiar, and infuses them with dark humor and tragedy. With characteristic inquisitiveness and provocation, Sichrovsky delivers a delightful collection that entertains and inspires us to tears, laughter, revelations. Foreword by award-winning playwright Ari Roth. Stories, among others: In "Prague," an adolescent Jewish boy struggles when his Communist parents renounce their affiliations upon Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia -- just as he is about to land a date at...