The Lost Shtetl

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Gross, Max, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Gross, Max
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Gross, Max	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Gross, Max	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Gross, Max	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Gross, Max	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Gross, Max	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

"What if there was a town that Hitler missed? For over fifty years the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol has existed virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared of the Holocaust and Cold War, Kreskol has enjoyed an isolated peace. But when a marriage dispute spirals out of control, Kreskol is suddenly rediscovered and brought into the 21st Century. Pesha is in a loveless, arranged marriage and summons the courage to escape Kreskol on foot. But when her husband goes after her, panicked town leaders (protecting secrets of their own) send a woefully unprepared young man out to bring them home. The orphaned outcast named Yankel-unlearned, functionally illiterate (his Yiddish is useless to the modern-day outside world), and tagged with an inconceivable origin story-soon finds himself in the care of a psych ward. But when the truth comes out about his origins, his name is splashed across the covers of Polish newspapers. Ready or not, Poland commits to returning Yankel to Kreskol, and reintegrating the town that time forgot. In the course of doing so, the devious origins of the town's disappearance come into the light. And what has become of those runaways? Kreskol, torn asunder by disagreement between those embracing change and those clinging to its old world ways, may soon be forced to make a choice or disappear altogether"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Five stars submitted by tcramer318 on July 30, 2023, 10:08am The story of a Jewish village in Poland that got missed by the 20th century, not because of any supernatural or magical intervention but simply due to some bureaucratic oversights. The ending was ambiguous, but I think that works best for this story. This novel originally came out in September of 2020, so I did spend some time trying to how the village would have been impacted by COVID, if the book had been set a few years into the future. Would recommend for people who like a fish-out-of-water story, or for people who are interested in the aftermath of the Holocaust in Poland without reading a novel of the Holocaust in Poland.