Chaim Grade’s “Sons and Daughters” Presents the Shtetl without Nostalgia

Pieced together from chapters published serially in the Yiddish press, a rediscovered manuscript, and even the author’s correspondence, Sons and Daughters is the final, unfinished work of the master novelist Chaim Grade. The Lubavitcher rebbe was among those who once eagerly awaited its new instalments. Much like Fiddler on the Roof, which debuted within a year of the novel’s first chapters, its theme is generational conflict in the shtetl, as each child moves away from tradition in his or her own way. But unlike the blockbuster musical, notes Julian Levenson, the novel seems to eschew nostalgia.