Daniel Stein, Interpreter: A Novel in Documents

Daniel Stein, Interpreter is seen by many as the great Russian novel of our time. Winner of the Russian National Literary Prize and the Simone de Beauvoir Prize, and nominated for the Russian Booker Novel of the Decade, Ludmila Ulitskaya has earned accolades internationally for this groundbreaking work.

This innovative novel tells the story of Daniel Stein, a Polish Jew who narrowly survives the Holocaust by working for the Gestapo as an interpreter. After the war, he converts to Catholicism, becomes a priest, and finally emigrates to Israel. Despite this seemingly far-fetched progression, the life of Daniel Stein is not an invention—he is based on a real person, Oswald Rufeisen, a Carmelite priest.

Daniel Stein, Interpreter ranges from before World War II to modern times, and from the shtetl to Israel to America. It portrays a life full of amazing contradictions and undaunted faith.