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Winner of the 2020 EBRD Literature Prize.

‘It is sincere, it is warm, it is generous. It has the feeling of a very great classic.’ Rosie Goldsmith, Chair of the EBRD Judges

‘Powerful, demanding and at times transcendent.’ The Irish Times

‘Dramatic and heartbreaking’ The Jerusalem Post

‘It is above all a celebration of life. It has a wonderful sense of the individuality, indeed of the eccentricity of the people.’

Devilspel by Grigory Kanovich, translated by Yisrael Elliott Cohen, tells the story of the small Lithuanian town of Mishkine as it is invaded by Germany in 1941. The novel follows the fate of various Jewish and non-Jewish characters, including the local grave-digger, a farmer, the tailor and a madman.

‘It manages to tell you something about human capacity for evil without ever losing its own warm, beating heart,’ Vesna Goldsworthy

‘It really is the most heartbreaking and unforgettable tale.’ Thomas de Waal

Devilspel evokes the lost world of Lithuanian Jews during the Second World War. From the lives of Grigory Kanovich’s vividly drawn characters emerges a panorama of world events that shook eastern Europe and the world.