One of the more unusual novels I've read in awhile. This is the story of a young girl from Zalischik, a tiny Romanian village of Jewish families, still peaceful in 1939. When the isolated residents learn of the horrors that are beginning elsewhere in Europe and a traumatized woman washes up on the riverbank, the residents decide they must make a change. They will begin the world again, and make today the first day of the world.
The writing is dreamlike but anchored with real, if bizarre, events. The girl's aunt and uncle take her from her parents so that they too might be parents in the new world. The girl grows and marries a sweet young man who sleeps all the time. The villagers collectively smash their crockery and craft a mosaic of the heavens on the barn wall. Part Book of Genesis, part Garcia Marquez, and maybe a little bit of acid trip, the strangeness is just beginning to make sense when the 'old' world collides with the new one with ferocity. Ausubel tells a story of horror and suffering that might be familiar if it weren't so magical. Imperfect but worth reading.
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