Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor.
The Bride From Odessa is a collection of eleven short stories written by Argentinian author, Edgardo Cozarinsky. Spanning over 100 years, and several continents, the stories show an impressive range of cultural knowledge.
The stories are mainly based on Jewish migration around the Second World War, but the oldest one is about Russian Jews, who find refuge in Argentina in 1890, and the most recent, is about an Argentine-American Jew who travels to Lisbon to unravel the threads of his grandparents’ wartime affair. It is difficult to go into more detail about what happens without giving things away. Even the back cover of the book ruins one of them – so if you do decide to get your hands on this book – please don’t read the back cover first!
Although each story is only about 15 pages long, the characters are vivid, and each one is compelling. Cozarinsky also has a career as a filmmaker, and I think this comes across in the eye for detail he has in the book’s construction.
I really enjoyed reading this collection – it has made me realise how little I have read from South American authors, and how poor my knowledge of their history is. The small snippets of information I now have, has left me craving more! I ordered one of Cozarinsky’s novels as soon as I finished reading this book, and can’t wait to read more, from both him, and other Argentinian authors.
Recommended, especially for the first short story.
5 replies on “The Bride From Odessa – Edgardo Cozarinsky”
[…] The Bride From Odessa by Edgardo Cozarinsky completed 27th January […]
Fascinating…I can’t remember when I’ve last read a collection of short stories. I will add this one to the list. It sounds good!
Thanks for this review – another fro my tbr list :0)
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[…] book I read from this continent in the last year, and possibly the only one in my whole life, was The Bride From Odessa by Edgardo Cozarinsky. I am going to try to seek out some more South American books in the […]