Mr. Grade paints with words a lively, personal look at Jewish life in the Jerusalem of Lithuania in the twilight of its existence. "My Mother's Sabbath Days" is written in a way that enables the reader to feel as if he or she is in Vilna with Mr. Grade. We share the burden of day to day life, the joy and peace of celebrating the Sabbath, and an unforgettable journey with the simple Jews of Vilna, right before the bloody tide of the Shoah swept into history this unique way of life in Eastern Europe.

Grade is a brooding writer, but one who also writes with grace and humor. "My Mother's Sabbath Days" is a memoir in the same way that Jorge Semprun's "Literature or Life" is a memoir, or Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." It is an artful recreation of a way of life, that is to say, a work of fiction in the most profound sense, a work that reproduces not only the surface of reallity, but its inner depths. Grade's reputation still lags far behind his deserts. He is certainly the equal of Isaac Bashevis Singer, but he recreates the world of Polish Jewry with less mockery and with a more brooding sense of tragic loss.

This is a Jewish novel written by Chaim Grade in Yiddish. There are English translations. This novel is set in Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. It is a fictional work about the Orthodox Jews in Eastern Europe. This particular novel, The Agunah, is about a widow who is forbidden to marry because her husband's body was never recovered nor did anyone ever witness his death during wartime. This is a problem for the protagonist, Merl, because she cannot remarry under Jewish law without the permission of a rabbi and there is no rabbi who could give her permission because there is no witness to her husband's death. Many other conflicts unfold as the novel persists. The entire town becomes involved in one way or another. There are two men fighting for her love and for her to marry them. Who will it be? Can she even remarry? You must read to find out. But you will learn more from this novel than those answers. You will learn how the Orthodox Jews live and a little about their customs. It is an educational experience entagled with a great story! I truly loved this novel and believe that it is one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever read!

Like always, Chaim Potok's THE SKY OF NOW was very entertaining. It was very interesting for me (a reader of Potok's adult novels) to read a story aimed at a much younger audience. Five stars to THE SKY OF NOW!