A blessing on the moon - Joseph Skibell

When I got to our village, everything was gone. A dozen workmen were lifting all the memories into carts and driving off. 'Hey! Hey!' I shouted after them. But they wouldn't stop. In front of every house were piles and vows and promises, all in broken pieces. How I could see such things, I cannot tell you.'

Chaim Skibelski was a successful businessman, husband, and father before he was shot along with the other Jews from his small village. Instead of resting peacefully in the World to Come, Chaim wanders the earth and encounters a world that is at once absurd and oddly familiar. Through it all, Chaim manages to find hope and compassion in the most astounding circumstances, discovering beneath the human propensity for destruction the promise of renewal.

Narrated from an entirely unexpected point of view, A BLESSING ON THE MOON is a daring and original novel inspired by the horrors of the Holocaust. Its startling vision and emotional impact combine fantasy and realism to create a tour de force that is by turns wise, humorous, and deeply moving.

Joseph Skibell is a playwright and writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin. This is his first novel.

Joseph Skibell has written a story that blends horror with mad humour and heart-stirring pathos. A work of striking originality
J. M. Coetzee

Daring in its haunting, often painful honesty, dense in thoughtful observation and unsparing incident ... an unlikely page-turner. An act of commemoration ... confirmation that no subject lies beyond the grasp of a gifted, committed imagination
NEW YORK TIMES

Perfect ... one of the best imaginings of the unimaginable I've ever read
LITERARY REVIEW

Reminiscent of D M Thomas's The White Hotel...the imager is powerful and the writing assured.
THE TIMES