Sepharad

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Sepharad: A Novel. - Rated
"Sepharad" by Antonio Munoz Molina: A spellbinding, heart-rending, rich tapestry of a novel that combines historical facts with both real life and fictional characters. And, quite simply, it's an amazing read.

"Sepharad" contains 17 stories that touch on the Sephardic diaspora, the Holocaust and Stalin's purges. We climb inside the tormented minds of various individuals - Communist dissenters locked inside a world of painful paranoia; persecuted Jewish people who cannot begin to comprehend what is happening to them; the author's own private anguish as he awaits blood test results...

I could go on, but really this novel should be experienced without any preconceptions. Personally, I don't think I have ever read a novel that throbs with so much COMPASSION. At various points, I had to put the book down and take a deep breath. Make no mistake, this is heady stuff.

I've found it rather hard to review this book - it's an intense, hypnotic read, and my words here seem in comparison a bit clumsy and futile. I would say, though, that as a cautionary tale, "Sepharad" almost matches up to Primo Levi's Holocaust masterpiece "If This Is A Man / The Truce". It's a highly important piece of literature and an unforgettable journey.

A professional review in the San Francisco Chronicle summed up "Sepharad" perfectly by describing it as a "tender and terrible book".

It is both of those things and more. An essential purchase.

An outstanding novel - Rated
Beautiful book about novels, about tragedies, about hatred and fear, and love... beautifully written mixing real characters (Primo Levi, Willi Muzenberg, Kafka) and non real ones.
A book that talks about the misery and the beauty of human beings; about racism, sexism,violence and all the other things we prefer not to think about.