Bøger af Curt Leviant

While in the archives room of the Siena Municipal Public Library, I noticed a cardboard box labeled "Lorenzini?" Since Lorenzini wrote Pinocchio under the pen-name Collodi, I opened the box and was astounded to see a handwritten manuscript titled: Tinocchia, the Adventures of a Jewish Puppetta. I photographed the pages, and soon enough translated the story into English. Tinocchia, the story's narrator, is created by her carpenter father, Yossi, who named her after the Hebrew word for "baby," tinok, and as a nod to his fellow woodworker, Gepetto, the creator of Pinocchio. While riding on her magic cart, Tinocchia bumps into a puppetto who introduces himself as Nipocchio. Naturally, the puppetto's nose grows . . . Pinocchio and Tinocchia share adventures: Tinocchia becomes involved with Samael, the Dark Angel; Pinocchio and Tinocchia encounter pirates on a sailboat which gets overturned in a storm. One day Pinocchio visits asa real boy and offers Tinocchia a magic salve. She scolds him that he has no right to take the salve. In any case, she does not want mortality; she wants to live. Pinocchio turns back into a puppetto to be with her. And, like in a true fairy tale, they live happily ever . . . after . . . presumably.

With the lyrical joy and lighthearted wordplay that have won him critical acclaim, celebrated Jewish author Curt Leviant delivers a charming literary love story against the backdrop of the lush Italian countryside. In this enticing email romanza, Leviant delivers a breathless confessional with two beginnings and two endings, leaving it up to the reader to decipher what s real.

“A comedy of errors [and] bedroom farce” from an award-winning author critically acclaimed for his satiric stories of love and Jewish experience (Kirkus Reviews).   Reunited at their Jewish day school reunion, Guido and Charlie find themselves attracted to the same woman, a beautiful cellist named Aviva. Guido, a photographer, makes his move by going to Aviva for music lessons and soon enough, they become lovers. What Guido doesn’t know is that his friend Charlie, a psychologist, has taken Aviva as a client and is a party to the relationship through Aviva’s weekly confessions.    Written from the point of view of all three characters, with a swirl of delightful supporting characters and even a directory of footnotes that adds expansions, humor and surprises to the narrative, Diary of an Adulterous Woman is a highly entertaining look at desire, jealousy, the power of secrets and the all-too-human complications both longing and love can bring.

This award-winning novel is "a delightful, inventive tale" about the pursuit of love and literary fame from "a compassionate and witty satirist" (Kirkus Reviews). It's the opportunity of a lifetime for middle-aged Ezra Shultish--a chance to the meet his literary hero, Nobel Laureate Bar Nun, a writer Ezra has worshipped for most of his career as a teacher and translator. Hoping to get a recording of the author reading his story, The Yemenite Girl, Shultish travels to Israel, where he finds himself pursuing his own Yemenite girl, as well as the elusive author. But will Ezra get the girl--or his own glimpse of literary fame? Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Book Award, The Yemenite Girl is Curt Leviant's comic novel on the nature of celebrity and the relationship between life and art. "Shultish is a man with a life of his own. . . . And the celebrity, too, is remarkably drawn. . . . [The book] is done with great tact, feeling, and skill." --Saul Bellow, Pulitzer Prize- and Nobel Prize for Literature-winning author "A passionate story . . . The charm of the text and the intensity of the subtext is what keeps the pages turning." --The New York Times Book Review "Good comic writing and satire on the Hebrew literary scene with its jealous politicking for literary prizes." --The Washington Post

A humorous collection of love stories from an award-winning author who has been called "a compassionate and witty satirist" (Kirkus Reviews). From Holocaust survivors to Yiddish artists, a petty thief and a Polish shiksa with a passion for Jewish history, what unites the delectable characters in Curt Leviant's witty collection of romantic tales is the universal desire for love and admiration. With settings as various as the Deep South, Boston, New York, Italy, Israel, each story is a wry look at romantic pursuit, each relationship as unique as the lovers themselves. Whether or not love succeeds for Leviant's all-too-human characters, the journey is always filled with humor and heart.

The first accurate edition and English translation of one of the most fascinating works in medieval Hebrew letters. A rarity of enormous interest, this refurbished Hebrew translation of an Arthurian romance is the only known text of its kind in existence. Based on the writings of an anonymous Italian Jew in 1279, the author presents two stories. The first relates Merlin's role in the seductions of Igerna by Pendragon and the consequent birth of Arthur. The second tells of Arthur's rise to royal glory, of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere, his meeting with the Maid of Askalot, and his skill at a jousting tournament. This romance exists in a unique copy at the Vatican Library, which Curt Leviant personally examined. He offers a highly readable version of that text in corrected Hebrew with graceful English transliteration on facing pages, and an analysis of Jewish aspects of the piece. He also traces its origins to an Old French tale. Not just a literary curiosity, this is at once fine scholarship and compelling proof of the vibrant interaction between Judaism and other cultures of medieval Europe.

A strikingly different love story with a superb comic flair, The Yemenite Girl explores the phenomena of fame and hero-worship, as well as the relationship between life and art.

A collection in which readers can find important works of Jewish tradition and culture. It includes literature that spans many genres, from fiction and poetry to legal, ethical, and midrashic works; from responsa and Biblical commentary to histories and letters.