gr8reader 's review for:

Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau

4.0

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When I started the book and saw "Translator's Note" at the start of the book, I was a little bored by the first few pages and almost put the book down.....as the progressed you see that it is a combination of the translator's notes - or story along with Itzik Malpeshs's story. It is always clear which of the story lines you will be reading in each chapter by the title. Itziks's chapters are also "numbered" by the Hebrew letters - aleph, bet, etc. The stories of course come together by the end. Well written, at times, each story line had me anxious to get to turn the page to find out what happened. Some surprises along the lines of "small world" here and there and one, not so suprising. Itzik's story is of life in the "old country," traveling to America - what happens as he disembarks and how he works to make a life for himself, discovering that the streets are not paved in gold. Worthwhile read.