Before All The World

A mesmerizing, inventive story of three souls in 1930s Philadelphia seizing new life while haunted by the old.

'Beautiful and original . . . making itself felt in complex and powerful and visionary ways, led by rhythm in the language and the urge to make that language new' Colm Tóibín

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 12 January 2023
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

In the vibrant city of Philadelphia, at the tail end of Prohibition, Leyb crosses paths with Charles. They find themselves in the enchanting realm of Cricket's, a former speakeasy renowned for its welcoming spirit, as Charles humorously describes it in his secondhand Yiddish as "feygeles." Leyb is taken aback, for fourteen years in America have taught him that his native tongue is confined to his people. Yet, here stands Charles, his fingers stained with ink, effortlessly engaging with the barkeep, a Black man from the Seventh Ward, speaking to him in Jewish—Charles, who affectionately calls him "Lion," and with whom he will fall deeply in love.

Yet, Leyb's mind is plagued by memories of a past life on a different continent, and the village of his birth, where one fateful day, everyone except the ten non-Jews, including a young poet named Gittl, and himself, were taken to the forest and brutally executed. Leyb's two lifetimes intertwine when Gittl arrives in Philadelphia, thanks to a poem she wrote and the mysterious intervention of a shadowy figure known only as the Baroness. Enveloping Gittl are the mischievous malokhim, the spirited spirits of her siblings.

Before All the World unfolds with a magnificent surge of language, painting a vivid portrait of the impossibility of escaping trauma, the urgency of embracing a brighter future, and the transformative power that lies within our responsibility to the future. It poses the most fundamental question in the voices of its angels: What do you intend to do before all the world?

Weight: 476g
Dimension: 146 x 224 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472157416