Book description
Rifke Schulman, a Russian Jew, came to Argentina in 1889 at the age
of eighteen and helped set up the small agricultural colony called
Moises Ville. Rifke's journal and the accompanying short stories
introduce Bela Pelatnik, a victim of the white slave trade; Henoch
Rosenvitch, the love of Rifke's life; Leah Uberman on her way to
attend Moises Ville's centennial celebration; and many others. The
book spans the last hundred years and examines the experience of
Jewish immigrants in both North and South America, some of whom were
nourished by their roots, others who severed their ties to an old way
of life. In looking at the choices they all made, the ways they found
love or shut themselves off from it, Nina Barragan offers a moving and
multidimensional portrait of early twentieth-century Argentina and its
contemporary descendants.
Nina Barragan lives in Iowa City. Her other books include The
Egyptian Man and No Peace at Versailles.
