Set during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train. Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around them, making it difficult for them to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child. A Jewish father rides on a train holding twin babies. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed both children. In hopes of saving them both, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and throws her into the forest. While foraging for food, the wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. Although she knows harboring this baby could lead to her death, she takes the child home. Set against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism, The Most Precious of Cargoes is a fable about family and redemption which reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

The Most Precious of Cargoes: A Tale

Literature & Fiction

Grumberg, Jean-Claude

Genre Fiction

HarperVia

Winner of seven Molières, the Pulitzer Prize of France, Jean-Claude Grumberg is one of France's leading dramatists and a distinguished voice of modern European Jewry after the Shoah. His success in portraying contemporary Parisian Jews on the stage represents a new development in European theater and a new aesthetic expression of European Jewish experience and sensibility of the Holocaust and its aftermath, a perspective quite different from either the American or the Israeli one. Grumberg's Jews are French to their fingertips, yet they have been made more consciously Jewish by the war and the difficulties of reintegrating into a society in which too many neighbors denounced them or ignored their pleas to save their children. Affirming the new status of Jewish culture, Grumberg's plays insist on the recognition of Jewish identity and uniqueness within the majority societies of Europe.
This volume offers the first English translation of three of Grumberg's prize-winning plays: The Workplace (L'Atelier, 1979), On the Way to the Promised Land (Vers toi Terre promise, 2006) and Mama's Coming Back, Poor Orphan (Maman revient, pauvre orphelin, 1994). Presented in the order of the history they record and steeped in Grumberg's personal experience and insights into contemporary Parisian life, these plays serve as documentary witnesses that begin with the immediate postwar reality and continue up to the end of the twentieth century. Seth Wolitz provides notes on the plays' themes, structures, characters, and settings, along with an introduction that discusses Grumberg's place within the emergence of French-Jewish drama and a translation of an interview with the playwright himself.

Jean-Claude Grumberg: Three Plays (Exploring Jewish Arts and Culture)

Dramas & Plays

University of Texas Press

Two major works by the winner of France's 1991 Molière award for Best Playwright.

The Free Zone /The Workroom

Temerson, Catherine

UBU Repertory Theater

The Most Precious of Cargoes Lib/E: A Tale

Harpercollins

Set during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train. Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around them, making it difficult for them to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child. A Jewish father rides on a train holding twin babies. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed both children. In hopes of saving them both, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and throws her into the forest. While foraging for food, the wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. Although she knows harboring this baby could lead to her death, she takes the child home. Set against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism,&nbsp;The Most Precious of Cargoes&nbsp;is a fable about family and redemption which reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places.

The Most Precious of Cargoes

'A magnificent small book to read urgently' Libération\nOnce upon a time in an enormous forest, there lived a poor woodcutter and his wife. Around them a war wages, and hunger is a constant companion. Yet every night, the woodcutter’s wife prays for a child.\nA Jewish father rides on a train holding twin babies. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed both children. In hopes of saving them both, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and throws her into the forest.\nWhile foraging for food, the woodcutter’s wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. She knows that this little girl will be hunted, but she cannot ignore this gift: she will accept the precious cargo, and raise her as her own.\nSet against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism, The Most Precious of Cargoes is a fable about family and redemption which reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places.

Contemporary

Picador

'A magnificent small book to read urgently' Libération\nOnce upon a time in an enormous forest there lived a poor woodcutter and his wife. Around them a war wages, and hunger is a constant companion. Yet every night, the woodcutter's wife prays for a child.\nOn a train crossing the forest, a Jewish father holds his twin children. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed them. In hopes of saving both their lives, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and gently throws her from the train.\nWhile foraging for food, the woodcutter’s wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. She knows that this little girl will be pursued, but she cannot ignore this gift: she will accept the precious cargo, and raise her as her own. . .\nSet against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism, The Most Precious of Cargoes, translated from French by Frank Wynne, is a deeply moving fable about family and redemption, a story that reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places.

Il était une fois, dans un grand bois, une pauvre bûcheronne et un pauvre bûcheron. Non non non non, rassurez-vous, ce n'est pas Le Petit Poucet ! Pas du tout. Moi-même, tout comme vous, je déteste cette histoire ridicule. Où et quand a-t-on vu des parents abandonner leurs enfants faute de pouvoir les nourrir ? Allons... Dans ce grand bois donc, régnaient grande faim et grand froid. Surtout en hiver. En été une chaleur accablante s'abattait sur ce bois et chassait le grand froid. La faim, elle, par contre, était constante, surtout en ces temps où sévissait, autour de ce bois, la guerre mondiale. La guerre mondiale, oui oui oui oui oui. J.-Cl. G.

La Plus Précieuse des marchandises: Un conte

SEUIL

Jacqueline Jacqueline

Literary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grumberg, Jean-Claude. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Grumberg, Jean-Claude

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Grumberg, Jean-Claude. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Most Precious of Cargoes: A Tale

Jean-Claude Grumberg: Three Plays (Exploring Jewish Arts and Culture)

The Free Zone /The Workroom

The Most Precious of Cargoes Lib/E: A Tale

The Most Precious of Cargoes

The Most Precious of Cargoes: A Tale

The Most Precious of Cargoes

The Most Precious of Cargoes

La Plus Précieuse des marchandises: Un conte

Jacqueline Jacqueline