This is a beautiful historical fiction with adventure. The writing is very descriptive. The characters are so unique and interesting. Such a great atmospheric novel

This is a slow burner, and I would recommend sticking with it. It is worth the time but into it. I have to be honest it didn't really do it for me. However, that is a matter of taste. I would recommend trying a sample on something like Kindle. You can judge if it is for you. There is enough to decide. Definitely not disappointment.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to it before it was archived but will review in full when I do.

A slow start but did eventually pick up. I might have to give this book another read. I wanted to enjoy it more than I did.

I would rate this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I seem to have a really unpopular opinion on this book. There was absolutely no mystery to this story, which is something I was expecting going in. I also found the story incredibly slow and that nothing really happened at all - overall I was left kind of bored while reading this.

The Slaughterman’s Daughter is very much a book about antisemitism in Tsarist Russia. Set in Motal, an isolated town in the Pale of Settlement, it’s basically a cross between War and Peace and a cat and mouse dead body mystery with one of the townsfolk and the Okhrana.
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I loved the beginning of this book. I picked it up because it seemed so similar to The Eighth Life and I’m still chasing the way that book made me feel. The Slaughterman’s Daughter was at first excellent and the characters felt like a warm hug. The Big Event™ was exciting and for a tiny second it sort of felt like Lotr’s The Prancing Pony but then the Okhrana came into it and it just got really procedural and really boring. It was no longer about the characters and that’s what had made it so good in the first place. Admittedly I skimmed over the last couple of chapters because I wanted to know the end but it was just too long

This book had such an electrifying start. It had me racing through the pages until I wasn't. After too many digressions, and long-winded descriptions of characters I never met again, I simply had to give up. Life is too short for doggedly ploughing through books that just cease to give me joy. I felt really bad because I had such high hopes after reading many wonderful reviews and a great start.

I thank NetGalley and MacLehose Press/Quercus for my free copy.

The Slaughterman's Daughter is a lengthy, fascinating historical fiction novel that really explores Jewish culture and the time period.
I enjoyed learning about the culture and time period and enjoyed following Fanny on her adventurous journey and she is a great example of both girl power and the wrath of a woman. The characters she comes across on her way fit perfectly in to the story.
Unfortunately I did find it a challenging read. I struggled to connect to Mende and was glad when the book switched from her to Fanny. Some of the gory parts are just a bit too gory for me. And I do feel the book could have been shorter with less detail and description of everything.

This wasn’t for me. Too long winded. Unfortunately, a DNF. A shame as the blurb drew me in.

Thank you for the eARC.

During the final years of the Russian Empire the townspeople of Motal live ordinary lives but when Fanny's sister's husband disappears from the village it sets about a chain of events that have not been seen before.

Fanny was such a strong character that I couldn't put the book down until I knew where her story would end. A unique and truly epic and gripping tale that I loved.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

I sadly was unable to complete the book before it was archived due to technical issues on my part. However, as far as I got the book was absolutely delightful. It did feel like it was slightly longer than it could have been but, delightful nonetheless. I recommend this book in general but more specifically if you enjoy literary fiction.

Before I launch into my review, please note that I received an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book but I found it to be an uphill struggle throughout my reading experience. The first struggles came with getting used to all the Jewish terms and Polish words, but after a few sub-chapters this became less of an issue and the pace began to quicken.

When Fanny leaves her husband and five children behind, action floods the pages and leaves the reader eager to devour more and more, but once this action declines, what follows is the most droll chapter I have read in a long time that just dragged out some very mundane lives. I persevered, waiting to return to the characters that had made me sit up straight and take notice but even their plight had dulled. The last few days I have been saying I'll complete the novel and put it to bed but instead I am the one falling asleep before I've even afforded it 10 minutes.

In the end I got so frustrated with the missing spaces/ hyphens between names that I decided enough was enough. There was too much dragging me down that was detracting from the novel and I wasn't prepared to waste anymore time on it. I can forgive mistake but you cannot change people's names. Is it NatanBerl or Natan-Berl? Meir-Anschil or MeirAnschil? It slows my reading and demonstrates a lack of care given to the final product. I can't even unravel what it is I think I've read up to the 43% marker.

I have no recommendations for who this book may be suited for, although it is geared at adults as opposed to teenagers. I am generally a fan of historical fiction and am happy for my stories to be set literally anywhere in the world, so the setting and genre was not the problem. I suppose I just didn't gel well with the overall style of writing.

As a winner of the Wingate Prize 2021, I do urge interested parties to garner further information and perhaps consult other reviews, but for me, I give it a 1/5 stars.

In a book called The Slaughterman's Daughter, I was prepared for some horrific descriptions of animals being slaughtered in the kosher style, and indeed there's plenty of that complete with blood, guts and suffering. However, to add in some irrelevant scenes of a man being deliberately cruel to a dog makes me feel the author is simply setting out to disgust. He succeeds. Not for me.

This book was truly an amazing read, that Yaniv Iczkovits could weave into this tale history, socialism and politics and still make it readable and with humour is truly fantastic writing. The storytelling is impressive, it makes you not want to put it down and given it’s a big book, that’s really good. This is a fantastic novel, full of depth and such richness of detail. It is certainly a slow read, even though I was addicted, but definitely pick this up, you will not regret it

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I truly adored this book, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to read it. This was an impressive translated historical fiction work, set in Poland.
I quite enjoyed the ride of this book, and think it’s quite unforgettable, which by itself says a lot about the book itself. The storytelling is impressive, and kept me wanting to continue reading which is also impressive giving it is a historical fiction and a pretty chunky one.

I highly recommended

The fantastic thing about NetGalley is that I get the opportunity to engage with authors I have never come across before and books which I probably wouldn’t have read if they weren’t put before me. The Slaughterman’s Daughter is a perfect example of this.

Though in essence a quest novel, Yaniv Iczkovits manages to interweave history, socialism, feminism, an understanding of the hardships of shtetl life, Jewish politics and anti-war polemic into a single volume and still make it funny! 🙌🏻

This is not a slim volume but I would urge you to read it because it is fabulous in both a literal and metaphorical sense. It is real story-telling, with every character well-rounded and believable and opposing points of view conveyed credibly and lovingly. There are clear forces of evil but they are not simplistic.

Although told from multiple viewpoints, This is one of those rare novels where you are not eagerly waiting for the next time your favourite character takes charge of the narrative-each of the characters deserves the time in the spotlight.

I challenge you not to have fallen in love with at least one of the protagonists by the end of the book.

My only gripe/suggestion would be to the publisher: please add a glossary of Yiddish words at the end of the book.

Congratulations to both the author and translator - fantastic work!

Thanks to NetGalley and the Quercus/Maclehouse Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

4 stars for this novel, it would be 5 except it's so densely packed.
I started this at the beginning of March and only finished it yesterday.

This book is beautifully written, and the characters compelling.
The story is fairly absurdist, to go with the times - in the late 19th century in Tsarist Russia, a woman has been abandoned by her husband yet refuses to do what most abandoned women do and take out an ad in the paper asking for his return. Instead she struggles on with life and raising her two children, a slight smugness at her own self-sufficiency filling the void left by Zvi-Meir until she has a breakdown and buys a fancy cut of beef and a new dress.

The novel turns to an adventure when her sister, the eponymous slaughterman's daughter, abandons her own family in the night to track down the renegade husband, along with the help of a man who hasn't said a word in decades, all while chased by the Russian secret police, and armed with only a small knife strapped to her thigh.

Again, the book is fairly dense since the author provides almost every side character with a full backstory.
It's a book that requires concentration, but it's worth it!

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Yes, it took me a while to get a hang of it...but the story itself is quite fascinating ! This translated piece of historical fiction is very impressive and so well written.
But I'd like to point out that it is a slow read and requires a lot of patience and commitment.

A sister goes in search for her runaway brother in law, the journey is not quite as straightforward as she had anticipated...

When I requested this novel I had no idea what to expect from it. What I found was a beautifully written, engaging & compelling story. I thoroughly enjoyed every page despite not really being familiar with the featured cultures.

A really wonderful novel that will make you laugh and cry.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for allowing me to read and review The Slaughterman's Daughter.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and MacLehose Press/Quercus Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a stunning epic historical tale set in the Russian Empire in the 19th century, and it is thoroughly compelling from start to finish. This book is not for the faint of heart, and it demands your attention, it takes effort from you as the reader, but let me tell you, the payoff is totally worth it. This is a book to take your time with, to mull over, to be completely absorbed by and I loved it.

I haven't read many books set in this era, or around this place and period of history and I had great fun researching this one, and through the brilliance of the authors writing I felt so vividly transported in time and place to experience these events as though they were played out in front of me. It is rare that I get so absorbed by a novel this way, but this has touches of utter brilliance that draw you deeper and deeper into the plot.

This is a delight of a novel, with all the depth and richness of detail you could possibly want. It is certainly a slow read, so be warned of that before diving in, and it's a lengthy one... but if those are things you enjoy then you're in for a real treat.

4 remarkable stars