Toward Babel

"Toward Babel might not have found an Eng­lish pub­lish­er had Shmueli not pub­lished her cor­re­spon­dence with the world-famous Celan—that would have been a loss: like him, she wrote in the lan­guage of her youth that she no longer spoke reg­u­lar­ly. This may be one rea­son her work is so haunt­ing, giv­ing us evoca­tive and poignant glimpses into one who, like Celan, a Jew dri­ven from her home-lan­guage, was nev­er able to leave the past and whol­ly set­tle into a land and lan­guage that was freely offered to her."—Jewish Book Council