Wakefield Press 2019

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In a Yiddish take on Notes from Underground, a dark, expressionist love affair develops in a large, unnamed Eastern European city between the young, impoverished, and violently self-loathing teacher, Shloyme—and a hungry, spiteful, and unsettlingly sensual revolver. 

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Purchased from a friend ostensibly to protect him from the pogroms sweeping the empire, the weapon instead opens a portal to Shloyme’s innermost demons, and through it he begins his methodical mission to eradicate any remnants of life and humanity in him and pave the way for his self-destruction. 

A Death takes the form of a diary that follows the Jewish calendar, describing hallucinatory demons and parasitical urges as its author spends his remaining days excising all his responsibilities and acquaintances from a life now devoted to not living.

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What people are saying:
 

"Atmosphere abounds in this short, bleak novel."

   — Tobias Carroll, Words without Borders 

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"Most of this (in)action is high morbid wit and Kennedy’s miraculous English allows as much Yiddish laughter as our too-Latinized tongue can probably bear. It is all very subtle despite the histrionics, with a hauntingly comic despair."

   — Martin Billheimer, Counterpunch

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"A disturbingly satisfying read."

   — M. A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

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"A forgotten masterwork of Yiddish literature."

   — Mikhail Krutikov, Forverts

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"Bleak sumptuous prose."

   — Joe Pascoe, The Collidescope

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The Complete Review: A Death

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Yiddish Forverts: review of A Death (in Yiddish)

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Ri Turner: review of Warsaw Stories & A Death

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The Yiddish Art of Suicide: Martin Billheimer, Counterpunch

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Words without Borders: Watchlist October 2019

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The Collidescope

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