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Friedrich Gorenstein (1932–2002) stands as one of the most original and uncompromising voices in twentieth‑century Russian literature.
His novels blend fiction, philosophy, religion, and politics in a way that is unmistakably recognisable as Russian literature, yet he tackles these very same issues as a Jewish writer, a Jewish thinker, and a fiercely independent Jewish voice.
Long unavailable in English, Gorenstein now reaches Anglophone readers through Andrew Bromfield’s masterful translation of Psalm—his second major and most controversial novel. With an illuminating afterword by Marat Grinberg, one of the leading scholars of Gorenstein’s work, this publication is an event of considerable cultural and literary significance.
Written in Moscow in the 1970s and first published in the West in 1986, Psalm is a bold metaphysical narrative told through five parables. Moving across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia—from the Holodomor to World War II, the Holocaust, and the postwar antisemitic campaigns—the novel follows Dan, a Jew from the tribe of Dan and the executor of God’s will. As he travels through these landscapes, witnessing devastation, he sets a cosmic drama into motion, punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous.
Provocative, visionary, and deeply unsettling, Psalm invites readers into the heart of Gorenstein’s Russian‑Jewish imagination. It is a landmark work from the now bygone Soviet Jewish civilization—one that will challenge, inspire, and stay with its readers long after the final page.
Following in Dostoevsky’s footsteps, Friedrich Gorenstein grapples with his predecessor’s legacy, confronting the ultimate questions of human existence. Like a modern-day biblical prophet, he assails Christian moral complacency in the shadow of the twentieth century’s catastrophes. He stands as a severe and uncompromising judge, exposing antisemitism as a spiritual affliction that corrupts both Christians and Jews. Andrew Bromfield’s masterful translation faithfully conveys the intense solemnity and dark irony that define Gorenstein’s style.
—Mikhail Krutikov, University of Michigan
One of the most significant unofficial novels of the late-Soviet religious renaissance, Friedrich Gorenstein’s Psalm is a generically innovative, stylistically daring, and theologically provocative reflection on Soviet history, portrayed as the realization of the Biblical prophet Ezekiel’s four curses. As if itself aspiring to a place within the Jewish prophetic tradition, Psalm foretells more of God’s punishments to come and sharply critiques the assimilated Soviet Jewry, even as it insists on the historical and theological preeminence of Judaism. Andrew Bromfield’s translation sensitively captures the stylistic fluctuation and rhythm of Gorenstein’s mesmerizing prose to bring to us the vision of a world both desolate and imbued with divine presence.
—Anna Schur, Keene State College
Friedrich Gorenstein (1932-2002), born in a Jewish family in Kyiv, is one of the most important and original writers of post-Stalinist Russian literature. Unable to publish in the Soviet Union due to censorship, he emigrated to West Berlin in 1980 and lived there until his death.
Andrew Bromfield is a translator of Russian literary and cultural texts with more than forty years of experience. His numerous translations range from Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Bulgakov to more modern authors such as Boris Akunin, Victor Pelevin, and Mikhail Shishkin. He currently works out of Bethesda, Maryland.
Marat Grinberg is a scholar of Jewish literature, culture, and cinema, and currently a professor of Russian and humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Grinberg’s latest book is The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines. He has written extensively on Friedrich Gorenstein.
Translator’s Preface
Psalm: A Novel/Reflection on the Four Plagues of the Lord
A Parable of a Lost Brother
A Parable of the Torments of Evildoers
A Parable of Fornication
A Parable of Pestilence of the Spirit
A Parable of a Broken Chalice
Afterword: The Soviet Jewish Haftarah: Friedrich Gorenstein’s Psalm, by Marat Grinberg