PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Alan Verskin is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Rhode Island.
"""Alan Verskin has once again proven himself to be a master translator with this English rendering of the Hebrew diary of the semi-messianic figure, David Reubeni. Verskin is no less a master storyteller who vividly recreates the historical setting of Reubeni's activity in his detailed introduction, which is eminently scholarly yet fully accessible.""—Norman A. Stillman, Executive Editor of Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World ""A fantastical tale of adventure, political intrigue, and apocalyptic expectation, David Reubeni's diary is surely one of the most fascinating pieces of Jewish writing from the age of exploration. Alan Verskin's elegant and eminently readable translation reveals the exploits of this self-declared messenger of a mythical Jewish kingdom as he pursues his unlikely quest to restore Jews to their ancient homeland.""—Matthias B. Lehmann, author of The Baron ""There were several ways in which Verskin could have approached this project. The material is so rich that he could have produced an updated English version of Aaron Ze'ev Aescoly's thick, heavily annotated and augmented 1940 Hebrew edition of the diary. But this would have been the work of several decades. On the other hand, he could have given us a bare translation with minimal apparatus. This small, elegant volume, which features Verskin's rich thirty-page introduction and deft, helpful endnotes, seems just right.""—Matt Goldish, Jewish Review of Books"
