Overview

On a Clear April Morning, by Marcos Iolovitch, is a lyrical and riveting coming of age story set among early twentieth-century settlers brought to an almost unknown Jewish farming experiment in an isolated corner of Brazil. This autobiographical novel is filled with drama, joy, disasters, romance, and humor. It travels from farms where the crops won't grow to towns where the Yiddish-speaking protagonist falls in love, befriends sons of German immigrants, studies philosophy with the Jesuits, and becomes an important member of Brazil's literary world. This first English edition includes elucidating historical notes on the origin of Jewish farming communities in the U.S., Canada and South America by the translator, Merrie Blocker, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer.

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Marcos Iolovitch's On a Clear April Morning is an autobiography-first published in Portuguese in 1940 with a second edition in 1987, and now introduced to English readers by Merrie Blocker. A series of short memories arranged in twenty-seven chapters of chronological order and without an overarching dramatic arc, the book becomes a chronicle rather than a novel-a chronicle of a specific time and a specific Jewish immigrant experience. Nevertheless, these are often delicately described, and the book is beautifully translated as Blocker manages to transmit the Portuguese into an English that flows naturally even through paragraph-length sentences, successfully keeping the translation as close as possible to the original phrasing without losing the musicality of Iolovitch's writing. -Eva Wissting, Asymptote An oft-cited fact of history isthat the first Jewish community in colonial America consisted of Jews fromBrazil who were fleeing the long arm of the Inquisition. Beyond that, however,we hear very little of the place where they came from. That's why On a ClearApril Morning, a novel written in Portuguese by the late Marcos Iolovitch,first published in Brazil in 1940 and only recently translated into English byMerrie Blocker, is such an exceptional book. ... The book is considerablyenriched by the foreword, preface and afterword that appear in Blocker'stranslation. Yet, even with the enriching efforts of Merrie Blocker and other contributors to the English edition, Marcos Iolovitch is truly and fullyhimself, a writer who wins us over completely. -Jonathan Kirsch, the JewishJournal

Marcos Iolovitch's On a Clear April Morning is an autobiography--first published in Portuguese in 1940 with a second edition in 1987, and now introduced to English readers by Merrie Blocker. A series of short memories arranged in twenty-seven chapters of chronological order and without an overarching dramatic arc, the book becomes a chronicle rather than a novel--a chronicle of a specific time and a specific Jewish immigrant experience. Nevertheless, these are often delicately described, and the book is beautifully translated as Blocker manages to transmit the Portuguese into an English that flows naturally even through paragraph-length sentences, successfully keeping the translation as close as possible to the original phrasing without losing the musicality of Iolovitch's writing. --Eva Wissting, Asymptote

Author Information

Born in a small Ukrainian village, Marcos Iolovitch was raised in southern Brazil among poor Jewish farmers and peddlers. He became a noted poet and essayist and practiced law. A fighter for social justice, he dedicated his autobiographical novel to ""all those who suffer and dream of a better world."" Merrie Blocker is a former U.S. diplomat who served as Cultural Attach in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the setting for On a Clear April Morning, as well as in Central Asia and Romania and throughout Latin America.

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