When the World Was Whole

Fülszöveg

For centuries in East Central Europe, Jews stood out: a tribe whose members were at once immensely rich and pitifully poor. Above all they were mysterious. Today, in the small villages of Hungary and Transylvania, of Poland and Yugoslavia, there are no more Jews. In one of those small villages many hundreds of years ago, Chades Fenyvesi's family settled, became stewards of the land, and achieved status as wealthy landowners. As a child, Charles Fenyvesi heard stories about his ancestors' passionate attachment to the land. These stories recounted experiences common to us all: marriage and unrequited love, perilous journeys, and unexpected blessings, misfortune and luck. The heroes and heroines are alive with the conviction that it is always possible to start anew, that the greatest miracle is to dig up what was cast off, to mend what was broken.
When the World Was Whole is the story of one family's enduring love of the land, and how the land —along with a world of custom and... Tovább

Fülszöveg

For centuries in East Central Europe, Jews stood out: a tribe whose members were at once immensely rich and pitifully poor. Above all they were mysterious. Today, in the small villages of Hungary and Transylvania, of Poland and Yugoslavia, there are no more Jews. In one of those small villages many hundreds of years ago, Chades Fenyvesi's family settled, became stewards of the land, and achieved status as wealthy landowners. As a child, Charles Fenyvesi heard stories about his ancestors' passionate attachment to the land. These stories recounted experiences common to us all: marriage and unrequited love, perilous journeys, and unexpected blessings, misfortune and luck. The heroes and heroines are alive with the conviction that it is always possible to start anew, that the greatest miracle is to dig up what was cast off, to mend what was broken.
When the World Was Whole is the story of one family's enduring love of the land, and how the land —along with a world of custom and devotion—was lost. But it offers as well a prism on the history of Central Europe — spanning from the days of the Hasidim to the revolutions of 1848 and 1956, the golden moment of the Habsburg Empire and its demise with the Great War, the Holocaust, and the bleak days of Communist occupation. But always Charles Fenyvesi's family members were able to find, even when they could only dream of the plenty they once knew, hope, even good fortune.
In When the World Was Whole, Charles Fenyvesi recaptures bits and pieces from a world that was once whole, in which lives were aligned in secret symmetry, where one good deed evoked another, and a gift from heaven passed from one generation to the next. In telling the story of his family, Charles Fenyvesi has helped to restore this world. Vissza