This morning I got married to a man I hardly know. The stranger, Eric, is some guy from Brooklyn whose family fled the pogroms in Ukraine. The author and narrator Sylvie Weil’s research, and what it turns up, give her a remarkable tale to tell. We get to know a family, a veritable tribe, dominated by two ghosts: grandfather Guedalia and a Ukranian great-grandfather, Shmiel-Chaim, who made his fortune selling herring. The narrator, in the role of an amused and incredulous victim, lets herself be overwhelmed by the living, too: Molly, her formidable mother-in-law, who never misses a chance to point out that her brilliant son could have had a much better wife; and Sam,  her father-in-law, who is obsessed with his failed career as a saxophonist.   So many conflicts, thing that are forgotten and little secrets that won’t go away… With so much raw material, someone else might have composed a vast saga. Sylvie Weil preferred to offer us an entertaining but true fable. Set to music… and served up with pickled fish.

Sylvie Weil’s previous book, Chez les Weil was memorable. Like this volume, it could be described as an exercise in ironic celebration. In it she painted lively yet mysterious portraits of her father, André Weil, and aunt, Simone Weil – two of the most brilliant minds of their generation. In this new book, once again, the author’s style changes everything… offering us a vision of a world throbbing with joy and disappointment.