Elya is the lad with the vision, and Elya has the map. Ziv and Kiva aren't so sure. The water may run out before they find the Village of Lakes. The food may run out before the flaky crescent pastries of Prune Town. They may never reach the Village of Girls (how disappointing); they may well stumble into Russian Town, rumoured to be a dangerous place for Jews (it is). As three young boys set off from Mezritsh with a case of bristle brushes to sell in the great market town of Lublin, wearing shoes of uneven quality and possessed of decidedly unequal enthusiasms, they quickly find that nothing, not Elya's jokes nor Kiva's prayers nor Ziv's sublime irritatingness, can prepare them for the future as it comes barrelling down to meet them. Absurd, riveting, alarming, hilarious, the dialogue devastatingly sharp and the pacing extraordinary, Lublin is a journey to nowhere that changes everything it touches.

Stand by Me in Tsarist Russia. It's 1907; three Jewish lads set off for Lublin, the market town of dreams.

About the Author
Manya Wilkinson is a Jewish New Yorker living in Newcastle, where she was senior lecturer in prose and scriptwriting. She's the author of a novel (Ocean Avenue), short stories, and many plays and radio dramas (broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Afternoon Play, Saturday Drama, Writing the Century, and Woman's Hour).

Reviews
'Lublin has a truly individual flavour. Beautifully written, well-paced, rhythmical, sad, funny. It was a real pleasure to read it.' David Almond ---- 'Wilkinson is a superb comic writer. She's also gifted in startling poetic compression, turning on a sixpence to move into moments of horror and prophecy. Reading Lublin, you have to laugh; you want to look away from what follows, but you can't.' Sean O'Brien ---- 'Mercurial, hilarious, terrifying, a sustained song to the lost, Lublin is a masterpiece. Prepare to be enchanted.' Sinead Morrissey ---- 'A true boy's own adventure with a deep heart set against a backdrop of ferocious world events, Lublin will charm and devastate readers in equal measure with its compulsive, funny and moving prose. Manya Wilkinson has given us a fable-like story whose characters live and breathe through the ages to speak to us of childhood dreams and the inequities of war today.' Preti Taneja ---- Praise for Manya Wilkinson's Ocean Avenue: 'With a wry wit that recalls Woody Allen, Wilkinson confidently and evocatively blends the historical and personal into a disturbing yet funny tale.' Publishers Weekly



Book Information
ISBN 9781913505943
Author Manya Wilkinson
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint And Other Stories
Publisher And Other Stories