New Book: His Hundred Years, A Tale by Shalach Manot (Jane Mubarach)

His Hundred Years, A Tale by Shalach Manot is a novel about a Turkish Jew, an everyman, a peddler, in the fast-deteriorating Ottoman Empire and in New York.

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Jane Mushabac’s 2016 book, His Hundred Years, A Tale by Shalach Manot is a novel she wrote on a Mellon Fellowship and with three PSC-CUNY Creative Writing grants; in manuscript it won an award in the Leapfrog Press international fiction contest.

Shalach Manot is a pen name she uses for her Sephardic fiction. She wrote her short story «Pasha: Ruminations of David Aroughetti» in Ladino; it has appeared in English and Ladino. Her NPR radio play, Mazal Bueno: A Portrait in Song of the Spanish Jews, is available as a CD, and her «Joya Gormezano,» has been performed by Tovah Feldshuh in an off-Broadway show that has toured to over fifty cities here and abroad.

Recent fiction readings include events at Harvard University, University of Washington, SUNY New Paltz, Tufts, City College, California State University Long Beach, Hunter College, Queensborough Community College, The Americas Society, and Brooklyn College.

The book she co-authored, A Short and Remarkable History of New York City (Fordham University Press and the Museum of the City of New York), a «Best of the Best» of the American Association of University Presses, is in its 5th printing; and she was interviewed as a NYC historian in an NBC television documentary. Her book on Herman Melville was called “bold and ambitious” by Sewanee Review and she has contributed notable essays on Melville to Columbia Journal of American Studies, and a Modern Language Association volume. She has also written an NEH-funded podcast,

«Civil War Stories,» on Walt Whitman. Prof. Mushabac’s writing has been translated into Russian, German, Bulgarian, and Turkish. She teaches Creative Writing at City Tech to students from all over the world. She is the founder of City Tech Writer, which showcases distinguished undergraduate writing from all disciplines at the college.

Praise for His Hundred Years, A Tale

“A beautifully compelling family drama set in Turkey and New York. It is episodically told and the pieces fall elegantly into place to create a satisfying whole. This is a very Turkish novel, and calls to mind the work of Orhan Pamuk. It is that good!”
—Ari Goldman, author of The Search for God at Harvard

“What a journey! His Hundred Years is rowdy and absorbing, modern and ancient, provocative and calming.”
—Tovah Feldshuh, actor of screen and stage

“A graceful, witty, and bittersweet story. In recounting the adventures of her irresistible, funny, and indomitable polyglot hero, Shalach Manot both recreates the world of Turkish Jewry and makes an original and compelling contribution to American immigrant literature.”
—Elisabeth Gitter, author of The Imprisoned Guest

“An extraordinary story told in an unusual way. As in oral folktales, events described don’t happen directly, but are transmitted to us through the mediation of a storyteller. But the stream of the narration is modern, non-linear. Combining the elements of two traditions, the oral folktale and the modern novel, Shalach Manot offers us something truly innovative.”
—Eliezer Papo, Director, The Sephardic Studies Research Institute, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

“Shalach Manot’s tale is an extraordinary book of hours, sparklingly composed of twenty-eight jeweled miniatures, altogether painting a fine life of consequence and sweetness. The hundred-year-old man emits the light of a man who was born knowing the meaning of life and who proceeded to live it. A lovely, true novel.”
—Rickie Solinger, author of Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

“This fascinating book by gifted writer and story teller Shalach Manot reflects on the life of an unusual Sephardic man, his childhood in Turkey, and later, his adaptation to life in America. We follow his adventures and come away with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the Sephardic immigrant experience during the 20th century. This is a book to enjoy and think about.” —Marc D. Angel, author of The Crown of Solomon and Other Stories
“Welcome Judeo-Spanish-American literature rooted in Asia Minor.”
—Richard Kostelanetz, artist/writer

“The ‘arsenic of frustration’ and the rush of love cooked into the same meal—many small portions create a reading feast in this tale by Shalach Manot. Nobody and somebody can change places in a second or a hundred years. This story shares the pain of exclusion, reminding us that sometimes we may be the ones doing the excluding. If our survival depends on our ability to see the world from the perspective of ‘the other,’ the other gender, our partner, His Hundred Years is an exercise we desperately need and one that beautifully illuminates the life forces that shape us.”
—Reiner Leist, author of American Portraits and Another Country

“Idiosyncratic, memorable—a pleasure!”
—Kelly Anderson, director of the documentary, My Brooklyn

Fuente: janemushabac.com / citytech.cuny.edu