The Correspondence of Paul Celan and Ilana Shmueli

“Surely, this correspondence gives us a more intimate understanding of Celan than we have without it. Further, the correspondence introduces Shmueli, an important writer, to English readers for the first time. Ironically, the correspondence is a living account of their old and new environment, their art, culture and intelligence, their extraordinary dialogue. We also encounter the ‘people and books’ that inhabited their biography and their writing, the history of their inner landscape. It is a gift that deserves the deepest and consistent attention—that ‘natural prayer of the soul,’ as Ilana Shmueli says, quoting from Celan and Malebranche.”
—From the Introduction by Norman Manea