Winner of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Literature Prize 2020
“With the publication of Devilspel, Grigory Kanovich will take his place amongst the great Jewish writers of Eastern Europe
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Devilspel
Grigory Kanovich
“Powerful, demanding and at times transcendent”
“It is sincere, it is warm, it is generous. It has the feeling of a very great classic.”
Devilspel evokes the lost world of Lithuanian Jews during the Second World War. From the lives of Grigory Kanovich's vividly drawn characters emerges a panorama of world events that shook eastern Europe and the world.
The subtle art of Kanovich is his ability to create characters in the town of Mishkine, like the feisty Danuta Hadassah, the idealistic Elisheva and the complex and empathetic Catholic Cheslavas, who live within us long after the chronicle of their lives has ended. The book is more than a novel. Its story touches the heart and questions human and divine justice in a world gone mad.
“Kanovich’s unfussy, matter-of-fact prose, interspersed with passages of great lyricism – all beautifully translated by Yisrael Cohen – only heightens the sense of fear and foreboding that fills the pages of this masterpiece.”
With the earlier publication of Shtetl Love Song and now of Devilspel, Grigory Kanovich will take his place amongst the great Jewish writers of eastern Europe whose works embody the noble struggle for dignity and survival during a seminal period of Jewish history.
Dr. Paul Socken
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Waterloo
‘One of the most important Jewish authors of our time’
- Forward Magazine
“It manages to tell you something about human capacity for evil without ever losing its own warm, beating heart.
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About the author
Born in 1929, Grigory Kanovich, is one of the most prominent living Jewish writers and winner of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts for 2014. Kanovich’s works, translated into 14 languages, form an epic Litvak Saga – a memorial and a requiem to a community now vanished.