To This Day

To This Day, Nobel prizewinner S. Y. Agnon's last novel (first published in Hebrew in 1952), is also his last to be translated into English. It is a brilliantly accomplished and haunting work. On the surface it is a comically entertaining tale of a young writer - a Galician Jew who has lived in Palestine, returns to Europe on the eve of World War I, and is now stranded in Berlin - who wanders from rented room to rented room in a city with a severe wartime housing shortage. On a deeper level it is a profound commentary all exile, Zionism, divine providence, human egoism, and other typically Agnonian concerns. A truly satisfying novel to complete the Agnon canon.
To This Day (Ad Hena) has been translated by the translator and critic, Hillel Halkin, who has also contributed an outstanding analysis of the work in an extensive introduction.