WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD AND THE JEWISH FICTION AWARD FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF
JEWISH LIBRARIESGOOD MORNING AMERICA MUST READ NEW BOOKS NEW YORK POST BUZZ BOOKS THE MILLIONS
MOST ANTICIPATEDA remarkable debut novel-written with the fearless imagination of Michael
Chabon and the piercing humor of Gary Shteyngart-about a small Jewish village in the Polish
forest that is so secluded no one knows it exists . . . until now.What if there was a town that
history missed?For decades the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation
virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War its residents
enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars and electricity and the internet and indoor
plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control the whole town comes crashing into
the twenty-first century.Pesha Lindauer who has just suffered an ugly acrimonious divorce
suddenly disappears. A day later her husband goes after her setting off a panic among the
town elders. They send a woefully unprepared outcast named Yankel Lewinkopf out into the wider
world to alert the Polish authorities.Venturing beyond the remote safety of Kreskol Yankel is
confronted by the beauty and the ravages of the modern-day outside world - and his reception is
met with a confusing mix of disbelief condescension and unexpected kindness. When the truth
eventually surfaces his story and the existence of Kreskol make headlines nationwide.Returning
Yankel to Kreskol the Polish government plans to reintegrate the town that time forgot. Yet in
doing so the devious origins of its disappearance come to the light. And what has become of
the mystery of Pesha and her former husband? Divided between those embracing change and those
clinging to its old world ways the people of Kreskol will have to find a way to come together
. . . or risk their village disappearing for good.
