The title refers to an expression repeated throughout the book, which takes on different meanings: sometimes it is the world after death, other times the world as it exists now in a more mature state. But the book focuses on the family of Benjamín Ziskind, originally from Russia, mixing historical elements such as the origins of Chagall or Der Nister, the Vietnam War, or the theft of a painting, and the reference to the trial of the “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee”, with fictional elements such as the Ziskind family.
Benjamín lives in New York and works creating questions for a television quiz show. He is persuaded by his sister to attend a cocktail party at the Museum of Hebrew Art in New York, where he steals a painting because he believes it is the same one that hung in his living room.
From there, Benjamín’s life is linked to that of his ancestors in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. In a colony for Jewish orphans, Marc Chagall is said to have given his grandfather a small painting depicting a view of Vitebsk (present-day Ukraine). In the colony, his grandfather also met the Yiddish writer Der Nister (who died in a gulag in 1950), a friend of Chagall, who illustrated his children’s stories (which would later be copied by Benjamín’s mother, Rosalía).
The novel combines elements of magical realism with a wide range of tones: sentimental, erotic (there are several descriptions), comic, tragic, religious… The ending is open. It portrays strong family bonds, paternal-filial love, etc. It is an entertaining novel that reflects contemporary urban life, such as divorce, harassment, and overprotection.
To fully understand it, one must be familiar with antisemitism and Soviet totalitarianism. Dara Horn (1977) is a novelist, essayist, and professor of Jewish literature. She has received several awards.