The Conversion
Seth Philip Greenwald (Jacket photograph) New York, N.Y. Schocken Books, 1998. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. [6], 228, [6] pages. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Aharon Appelfeld (born Ervin Appelfeld; February 16, 1932 – January 4, 2018) was an Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor. After World War II, Appelfeld spent several months in a displaced persons camp in Italy before immigrating to Palestine in 1946, two years before Israel's independence. He was reunited with his father after finding his name on a Jewish Agency list in 1960. (He had presumed his father was dead, and his father had presumed Aharon had also perished in the Holocaust. They had both made their way separately to Israel after the war.) The father had been sent to a ma'abara (refugee camp) in Be'er Tuvia. The reunion was so emotional that Appelfeld has never been able to write about it. In Israel, Appelfeld made up for his lack of formal schooling and learned Hebrew, the language in which he began to write. His first literary efforts were short stories, but gradually he progressed to novels. He completed his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He lived in Mevaseret Zion and taught literature at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. This story opens in an Austrian city, two generations before the Holocaust, where almost all of the Jews have converted to Christianity. The church bells are pealing today for Karl, an ambitious young civil servant whose conversion will clear his path to a coveted high government post. For Karl and his friends, most of whom have already converted, Judaism is an obstacle to their advancement that is easily discarded. The only Jews left are their impoverished relatives in the outlying Carpathian mountains and a few merchants whose shoddy stalls in the center of the town have triggered a campaign to remove them in the name of progress and civic beauty. Karl's future looks bright, but with his promotion comes a political crisis that turns his conversion into a baptism by five, unexpectedly reuniting Karl with his past and kindling a love affair that will force him to take a stand he could never have imagined. Derived from a Kirkus review: This provocative parable is the 12th novel to reach English from the internationally acclaimed author of such fiction as Badenheim 1939 (1980) and The Iron Tracks (1998). Protagonist Karl Habner is an Austrian Jew who has, with his mother’s blessing, converted to Christianity in order to facilitate his advancement as a municipal official employed by the city of Neufeld. No sooner has Karl accepted congratulations at his “conversion ceremony,” though, than nagging reminders of his late parents and of his religious heritage begin to shake his resolve to settle smoothly into his chosen new life. His oldest friend, an earlier convert, exemplifies embittered unfulfillment. His “scandalous” Aunt Franzi, a former cabaret singer and actress—and a forthright “proud Jew and . . . woman of principle”—dies suddenly, a visit to her provincial hometown tellingly evoking Karl’s untroubled childhood. And, crucially, his memories of Gloria, the housemaid who nursed his parents during the last illness of each, compel him to seek her out. His reunion with Gloria, and his chastened gratitude for her devotion to his loved ones, unite the two and show Karl a pathway back to his origins when an injustice orchestrated by the government he serves forces him to abandon the position he had coveted and won. He and Gloria return to the Ruthenian mountains to live simply, but they cannot escape the fate to which Karl had believed himself immune. Their story’s conclusion is swift, impersonal, and devastating. Its signal strength—his complex portrayal of a divided soul frustrated in its pursuit of goodness—once again confirms Appelfeld’s position as matchless dramatist of the intermingled burdens and rewards of Jewry in extremis. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Austria, Conversion, Jews, Religion, Racism, Anti-semitism, Identity, Relationships, Civil Servant, Carpathia, Career Advancement, Gratitude, Devotion, Injustice, Ruthenian
ISBN: 0805241531
[Book #80266]
Price: $45.00