The Five

A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the-Century Odessa

By: Vladimir Jabotinsky

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

The Five is an captivating novel of the decadent fin-de-siècle written by Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940), a controversial leader in the Zionist movement whose literary talents, until now, have largely gone unrecognized by Western readers/listeners. The author deftly paints a picture of Russia's decay and decline—a world permeated with sexuality, mystery, and intrigue. Michael R. Katz has crafted the first English-language translation of this important novel, which was written in Russian in 1935 and published a year later in Paris under the title Pyatero.

The book is Jabotinsky's elegaic paean to the Odessa of his youth, a place that no longer exists. It tells the story of an upper-middle-class Jewish family, the Milgroms, at the turn of the century. It follows five siblings as they change, mature, and come to accept their places in a rapidly evolving world. With flashes of humor, Jabotinsky captures the ferment of the time as reflected in political, social, artistic, and spiritual developments. He depicts with nostalgia the excitement of life in old Odessa and comments poignantly on the failure of the dream of Jewish assimilation within the Russian empire.

The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2005 Cornell University (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The most remarkable thing about this novel is how good it is." (The New Republic)

"Offers a fervent account of the temporary success and ultimate failure of Jewish assimilation in the Russian empire." (Booklist)

"With...this new English translation, The Five will become wonderfully important to a variety of different readers." (Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, University of Wisconsin–Madison)

Brilliant book marred by awful narration

It's quite remarkable how good this book is. It's really a novel, not a political tract, even though of course Jabotinsky was a politician. But the narration is terrible: it's like a bad version of Virtual Voice. Worth it to me because I wanted to know the book, and if you are busy or have a commute, it is probably worth it. But someone needs to give this narrator some basic lessons.

Narrator ruins a great story

The origin story of a ground breaking individual like Jabotinsky is sadly made unbearable by this narrator. Audible claims that this story is read by a man, however I strongly doubt this as it appears to be a very poorly performed AI narration. As an audiobook, this work is not finish-able, however I’m sure this book would be great when read or even just listened to with an alternate narration .

Great book, but sadly untranslatable

I've read the original, and it is a masterpiece. The intro to this one puts a lot of effort in trying to convince this translation is actually a good one. Well, that's a blunt lie. I was amazed by how dull and boring it sounds compared to the bright, vibrant original.
Can't blame the translator - I don't think one can really capture the nuances of Odessa unique speech in English.
I can, and do blame the performer, however. Awful, monotonous reading, making the hard job of sharing the unique flavor the original had via the language barrier even harder.