Publisher Description

From the translator of Avigdor Hameiri's Hell on Earth, winner of the 2019 TLS-Risa Domb/Porjes PrizeIn this unique memoir, now in English for the first time, Israel's first Poet Laureate Avigdor Hameiri details a trip to Europe in 1930 from the perspective of a Hungarian Jew who had served in the Habsburg Army. Upon visiting Austria, Hungary, Romania (including parts of ceded Hungarian Transylvania), and Czechoslovakia (including his Carpatho-Ruthenian homeland), he sees Europe in flux on the brink of an unknown disaster. Austria and Hungary are full of youth whose philosophy is "eat, drink and be merry; tomorrow we die."There is fear of Bolshevism from without, but the unfelt danger is German Fascism. Jews (especially in Hungary) are assimilated but cannot escape from their Jewishness: some are Zionists. Romania is corrupt and antisemitic. In Carpatho-Ruthenia, Hameiri has two premonitions warning him to return to Israel, a prediction of the destruction soon to befall Europe.Hameiri also gives accounts of the artistic and cultural scenes of 1930s Europe, as well as the world of Carpatho-Ruthenian Hasidism, which was soon to be destroyed by the Holocaust. From the growing danger and confusion surrounding inter-war Europe, in prose at once compassionate and bitingly sarcastic, comes a sweeping account of Jewish life in 1930 from one of Israel's prolific writers.

Author Biography

Avigdor Hameiri(18901970) was a prolific Hebrew writer. Born in Hungarian Transcarpathia, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914 and later emigrated to Palestine. He published dozens of books, including novels, memoirs, collections of short stories and poetry, scholarly and political writings, and children's books. Considered a pioneer of modernist Hebrew poetry, Hameiri was awarded the Israel Prize for literature in 1968. Peter Appelbaum, Emeritus Professor of Pathology, spends his retirement writing and translating books about Jewish soldiers in World War I Central Power Armies. Seven books have appeared, notably the first English translation of Bagehinom shel Mata (Hell on Earth), for which he has recently been awarded the TLS-Risa Domb/Porjes Prize. He currently lives in Land O' Lakes, Florida.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionTranslator's IntroductionProloguePublisher's IntroductionChapter 1. DramaChapter 2. A Scattering of ExilesChapter 3. A Telegram on CreditChapter 4. The Dawn of EuropeChapter 5. The Viennese SmileChapter 6. The Eye and the EarChapter 7. The PrisonerChapter 8. Our Two FacesChapter 9. With the Almighty's HelpChapter 10. The Dust of CriticismChapter 11. SicariiChapter 12. Journey to RuinChapter 13. Blonde is BeautifulChapter 14. The Costume PartyChapter 15. A Hebrew NovelChapter 16. Frozen in TimeChapter 17. The BaptistsChapter 18. MosaicChapter 19. My Two SoulsChapter 20. The Living ScarecrowChapter 21. The Messiah's EntreatyChapter 22. My Birthplace's AgonyChapter 23. The Holy OperettaChapter 24. The Canaanite ServantChapter 25. Spain the HealerChapter 26. CharosetChapter 27. The Legend of AllianceChapter 28. The Rear EchelonChapter 29. The Beacon of LightChapter 30. The Intoxicating DarknessChapter 31. ConscienceChapter 32. Homeward Bound

Description for Sales People

The only book in Hebrew on a visit to Central and Eastern Europe between the war by a Hungarian Jew who had served in the Habsburg Army and spoke the language. A first-hand look at the confused Jews of inter-war Austria and Hungary, caught between assimilationism and Zionism, but who could not completely part from their religion. A beautiful depiction of the Budapest coffee-house scene by someone who had grown up there before the war and knew the key people on the artistic scene. A moving description of Hungary's huge territorial and population loss mainly to Romania after 1920. Unique citations of lines by the Great Hungarian poet Endre Adi (whom Hameiri knew), unknown outside Hungary. Description of many Hungarian Jews (whom Hameiri knew) on the cultural scene of 1930s Europe. A unique writing style at once bitingly sarcastic and compassionate, multilayered on many levels. Little is as it seems, with a great deal of Hebrew puns and wordplay, reflected in the notes. A biting description (as befits a Hungarian) of Romanian backwardness, corruption, antisemitism. A description of Carpatho-Ruthenian hasidism right before it was destroyed in the Holocaust. Two prophetic warnings urging him to return to Israel as soon as possible: danger awaited in Europe. A searing description of American black lynching.

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