Fic­tion

The Pale

  • From the Publisher
August 27, 2025

Some­thing strange is killing peo­ple in The Pale of Set­tle­ment — the strip of West­ern Rus­sia where the Czars let Jews live.

When mil­i­tary hero Sergei looks up from the dead body on the street of the cap­tured Pol­ish town under his charge, he’s met with the most ter­ri­fy­ing thing he’s seen in years: a flea-bit­ten ortho­dox Jew who looks just like him and knows his true name.

When Yankev of Vis­hanev — down on his luck demon hunter, once pow­er­ful kab­bal­ist — looks into the eyes of the broth­er he thought dead half a life­time, he’s cer­tain he’s final­ly back on the path God laid out for him.

When the mon­sters attack, when the angels speak, when some­thing dark­er than human vio­lence threat­ens the Jews of the town with extinc­tion, will these two have what it takes to find their way back to being a fam­i­ly? Will they have what it takes to stop what’s coming?

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