Andre Schwarz-Bart - The Last of the Just

Secker + Warburg, LONDON, 1961.(reprinted March 1961)

Hardcover. Book Condition: Good with average Dust Jacket. Previous owner's name on ffep. Some tanning due to age.

The tradition of the Just Men is an ancient one, dating from the time of the prophet Isiah. These thirty-six mortals "are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs." Without the Just Men to witness and accept the suffering of humanity, mankind could not survive. It would be overwhelmed by the knowledge of the cruelty men inflict on their fellow men. The Last of the Just is an account of how the descendants of Rabbi Yom Tov shouldered the burden of this knowledge.

As Andre Schwarz-Bart acquaints us with succeeding generation of Levys, he also schools us in the tragic legacy of Jewish persecution. But neither the pogroms of the Cossacks nor the Spanish Inquisition could dampen the religious ardor of Europe's Jews. Expulsion after expulsion--from England, France, Portugal, Geramany, Russia--finally lead the Levys to Poland. Zemyock, a peaceful village sheltered in a valley, will be their home for two centuries. It is here we meet Mordecai and later Benjamin, grandfather and father of Ernie. But Ernie will not be born in Zemyock; the pogroms of the Russian Revolution determine that the Levys emigrate once more--to Germany.