Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade Translated into English for the First Time
“Quite possibly the last great Yiddish novel.” —Adam Kirsch
“One of the great—if not the greatest—contemporary Yiddish novelists.” —Elie Wiesel
“A great Yiddish novelist’s grimly foreboding and fiercely alive final work … This long-awaited novel is a monumental achievement.” —Kirkus (starred review)
(New York, NY) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is thrilled to announce that SONS AND DAUGHTERS, the last and previously untranslated novel by Chaim Grade, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf on March 25, 2025. Translated by Rose Waldman with an introduction by Adam Kirsch, SONS AND DAUGHTERS is available in English for the first time.
To celebrate this publication, 92NY Bronfman Center for Jewish Life and YIVO will present a book talk, on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 7:30pm ET at the 92nd St Y. The talk will feature native Yiddish speaker and translator Rose Waldman, Adam Kirsch, Chaim Grade scholar Justin Cammy, and editor of the novel, Todd Portnowitz in a conversation moderated by 92NY’s Rabbi David Ingber. It will also be livestreamed.
SONS AND DAUGHTERS introduces readers to the Katzenellenbogen family in the 1930s, when gangs of Poles are beginning to boycott Jewish merchants and the modern, secular world is pressing in on the shtetl from all sides. This clash between the freethinking secular life and a life bound by religious duty — and the comforts offered by each — stands at the center of SONS AND DAUGHTERS. Grade’s masterful novel brims with humanity and heartbreaking affection for a world, once full of life in all its glorious complexity, a portal into the history of Poland and Lithuania that the Holocaust would soon eradicate.
For the past 13 years, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has worked to reconstruct, organize, preserve, and digitize the Papers of Chaim Grade. This work has made possible the current publication of the novel SONS AND DAUGHTERS.
While SONS AND DAUGHTERS was serialized in Yiddish in the 1960s and '70s in New York-based Yiddish newspapers, it has never been published in its entirety and fell from sight after Grade's death in 1982. In 2016, while translating the novel, Waldman discovered that it had never been completed. Seven years later, after YIVO finished digitizing all of Grade’s papers, Waldman discovered two pages showing Grade's attempt to outline the ending. These pages have been included with a translator's note at the end of the book.
"The English language publication of Sons and Daughters, by Chaim Grade is a literary event of the highest magnitude in any language. Thirteen years of painstaking reconstruction of Grade’s literary estate by YIVO archivists have made this possible," said Brent. "Though published in part serially in Yiddish and left unfinished at his death in 1982, Sons and Daughters shines with Grade’s immense literary talent and represents the culmination of his thinking about Jewish life, community, and tradition."
SONS AND DAUGHTERS can be purchased online at the YIVO Store.
What: CHAIM GRADE'S SONS AND DAUGHTERS
When: Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 7:30pm ET
Where: Livestreamed and in person at 92NY (1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10128)
Cost: In person $18 / Live stream: $18
Reservations Available at: yivo.org/Sons-and-Daughters
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
For more information contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff
YIVO
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, now in its Centennial year, is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story