“[A] moving and heartbreaking immigrant account that began with a relatively abundant life in Zagradowka, a village in the Ukrainian province of Kherson. … I urge readers to discover for themselves this unassuming masterpiece.”
— Irena Karshenbaum, Jewish Post & News
“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 is
that the first Jewish community in colonial America consisted of Jews from
Brazil 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 Clear
April Morning, a novel written in Portuguese by the late Marcos Iolovitch,
first published in Brazil in 1940 and only recently translated into English by
Merrie Blocker, is such an exceptional book. … The book is considerably
enriched by the foreword, preface and afterword that appear in Blocker’s
translation. Yet, even with the enriching efforts of Merrie Blocker and other
contributors to the English edition, Marcos Iolovitch is truly and fully
himself, a writer who wins us over completely.”
—Jonathan Kirsch, the Jewish
Journal
“In this very interesting Jewish immigration story,
Iolovitch throws light on Jewish emigration and life in South America. … The
poetic language of Iolovich in this novel is very readable and well worth the
time.”
—Marcia R. Rudin, Reform Judaism
