For Two Thousand Years

May 15, 2017

Sebastian was a prominent Jewish Romanian lawyer and writer in the first half of the last century forced by anti-Semitic legislation to end his public career. This novel, published in 1934 and ably translated for the first time into English, traces the path of its protagonist from his university days to a career as an architect, during which he moves between Bucharest and Paris. Anti-Semitism pervades his surroundings, particularly in Romania, where he frequently hears the cry "Death to the Yids." It's so pervasive, in fact, that he seems inured to it and is shocked to learn by novel's end that several longtime Romanian colleagues have been anti-Semites all along. One of the most compelling passages is an argument between the protagonist and a supposed friend about the nature of anti-Semitism and how a Jew confronts it. VERDICT Laced throughout with debate regarding the place of the Jewish people and their culture in the world, among other issues, this work sits uneasily between philosophical speculation and narrative fiction. But it is an important historical document--prophetically, the protagonist cries out, "Has anybody had a greater need of a fatherland?"--and is recommended for readers of historical and Jewish fiction.--Edward Cone, New York

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Starred review from October 9, 2017
The existential predicament of a Jewish Romanian man born into a deeply anti-Semitic society is brought to harrowing life in Sebastian’s intelligent, tragic novel, which was first published in Sebastian’s native Romania in 1934. The narrator, 20-year-old university student in Bucharest in the interwar years, is harassed and physically assaulted by anti-Semitic classmates. His entire life has been marked by such attacks, and although he passes his exams, this constant onslaught inculcates self-doubt. Under the influence of sympathetic professor Blidaru, he decides to study architecture, hoping to find in this field a “feeling of fulfillment, of calm,” while friends turn to Marxism or Zionism for solutions to their impossible situation. But even as the narrator finds professional success, the effects of relentless anti-Semitism prove corrosive: “Being persecuted is not just a physical trial.... The reality of it slowly deforms you and attacks, above all, your sense of proportion.” Sebastian documents the melancholy of a man attached to his homeland even it continually rejects him in this bold and brilliant novel.