The Book Band

Publisher: Seraphim Editions
Genre: poetry; historical poetry; Russian history
Format: trade paperback; 86 pages
Price: $16.95

Winner of the 2007 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for Poetry.

Surviving the Censor explores the life of Osip Mandelstam, considered by many to be the foremost Russian poet of the 20th century. This book is not a biography. It is a collection of prose poems transcending the facts, and allowing the reader to experience events through the eyes of Mandelstam and his wife, as they are persecuted by Stalin over a period of four-and-a-half years.

Review: This book is a labour of love. The reader must labour to follow Osip's journey and learn its lessons. Aaron expresses his love of liberty and poetry by studying the man who died for both. - Ronald Charles Epstein, Prairie Fire Review of Books

Review: Aaron's book is truly polyphonic (some of the poems are in the voice of one of Mandelstam's fellow prisoners who is researching the subject ...) ... This is a highly unusual piece of Canadian writing. - George Fetherling, Seven Oaks Magazine