THE BOOK FAIR

Alan Fleishman’s fast paced historical novel, set in Uman, Ukraine, a small village 100 miles from Kiev, the capital, proves a heart-thumping thriller.  The novel takes place from 1890 to 1907, during the reign of Nicolas II.  Nicolas, twenty-six years old at the time of his father, Tsar Alexander III’s death, is ill prepared to be the Tsar.  However, one Tsar or another made little difference to the Jews, who faced Cossacks, Black Hundreds, Haidamacks and violent mobs with no protection under the law.

Avi Schneider follows the Jewish traditions of his family.  As a teen, he tires of the pogroms and decides he will not cower before the anti-Semitic mobs.  After meeting his Uncle Yacov, a soldier in the Tsar’s army, who comes to visit the family in Uman, Avi learns a different path.

Descriptive and well written, the novel encompasses the politics of the day as well as the historic period of Jewish life in the Ukraine, enmeshed with a tender love story.  The author renders detailed descriptions of the schetel, (shtetl) Uman, beautifully describes relationships of friends and family, and recounts horrific scenes of the pogroms Jews endured.  Goliath’s Head refers to young David slaying the Philistine, Goliath.  Excellent.  Recommended.