Four years after the Chmielnicki massacres of the seventeenth century, Jacob, a slave and cowherd in a Polish village high in the mountains, falls in love with Wanda, his master's daughter. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can't live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community. Racked by his consciousness of sin in taking a Gentile wife and by the difficulties of concealing her identity, Jacob nonetheless stands firm as the violence of the era threatens to destroy the ill-fated couple.
From the Publisher
The Slave is a burningly radiant, intensely beautiful book. Singer is answering his age like a prophet.” —Ted Hughes, The New York Review of Books“A peerless storyteller, Singer restores teh sheer enchantment with story, with outcome, with what-happens-next that has been denied most readers since their adolescence. There is about him a bardic quality that gives The Slave the strength and authority of a timeless folktale.” —David Boroff, Saturday Review
Library Journal
Jacob is a Jew, a pogrom survivor, and a slave of Polish peasants; he lives a simple life as a cowherd, tolerated only because of his skills with animals. Against both Jewish and secular law, he falls in love with Wanda, a Christian. Ransomed by his hometown, he flees with Wanda and begins a new life. But because conversion of Christians is against the law and Wanda (now called Sara) cannot speak Yiddish, she must pose as a mute. In the throes of labor, Wanda finally speaks, dies, and is buried as an outcast, outside the Jewish cemetery. Jacob picks up his son and emigrates to the Holy Land, not to return for 20 years. Except for a few references to specific historical events, this story, set in the late 17th century, is timeless. It is read in alternating sections by two highly competent narrators, Tracy Sallows and David Chandler. The transitions between readers are smooth and add interest to the presentation. Recommended for moderate to large audio fiction collections; a necessary purchase for all Jewish libraries with literature collections.-I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
