Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
beach reading
starry skies to read under
reading in nature
  • Location: Motal, Belarus, Poland, Russia

The Slaughterman’s Daughter

The Slaughterman’s Daughter

Why a Booktrail?

An epic historical adventure set in the Pale of Settlement during the final years of the Russian Empire.

  • ISBN: B07BF9K83Z
  • Translator: Orr Scharf
  • Genre: Fiction

What you need to know before your trail

The townsfolk of Motal, a small town in the Pale of Settlement where nothing extraordinary ever happens, are shocked when Fanny Keismann – devoted wife, mother of five and celebrated cheese farmer – leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night.

True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her?

Could it have anything to do with Fanny’s missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning his family to destitution and despair?

Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night?

Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Telekhany, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, whatever her past, whatever her reputation as a wilde chayeh, a wild beast .

Travel Guide

Travel BookTrail style to Motal, Belarus

Motal is a township  about 30 kilometres west of Pinsk on the Yaselda River in Belarus.

Motal was in Grodno Governorate until the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. Between World War I and World War II it was in Drahichyn county.

In 1937, Motal had 4,297 inhabitants, of whom 1,354 were Jews. During the war an Einsatzgruppen perpetrated a mass execution of the local Jewish community.

There is an orthodox Jewish Synagogue in Chicago, USA – Anshe Motele Congregation was founded on Sept. 3, 1903, by immigrants who named it after Motel.

Booktrailer Review

A wonderfully unique literary journey. It’s got history, atmosphere, a great story and fascinating insights into a time and place so far away from today.

Read TheBookTrail’s full #bookreview on the blog

Booktrail Boarding Pass:  The Slaughterman’s Daughter

Destination/location: Motal, Belarussia  Author/Guide: Yaniv Iczkovits  Departure Time: 2000s

Back to Results

Featured Book

A Poisoner’s Tale

1651: Inspired by the true story of Giulia Tofana: The Angel of Death with a Vial of Vengeance

Read more