With this novel, inexplicably unpublished until today, Sholem Aleykhem reveals his immense talent as a storyteller. With the grace of a Chagall, the truculence of a Chaplin and the verve of a Twain, he honours the art and the life of people of few, irresistible, picturesque, kneaded with humanity and humour in the face of fate. For “the stars do not fall, they wander...”
Leybl Rafalowitch, thirteen years old, is the son of the richest man in the village. Reyzl Spivak, fourteen, is the daughter of a poor singer. We are at the dawn of the twentieth century, in a small Jewish village on the borders of Europe. These two are going to fall in love, don’t you think? But no one would have predicted that an incredible travelling theatre company would precipitate their romance into an extraordinary adventure.
