Description

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This charming memoir by Bella Chagall recalls her childhood in Vitebsk, the Russian-Jewish market town where she and her husband, Marc Chagall, grew up. Her warm reminiscences of Jewish family life in pre-Revolutionary Russia are illustrated with thirty-six pen-and-ink drawings by Marc Chagall.

Bella Chagall, a gifted author and actress, was the youngest of seven children born to a well-to-do Hasidic family. While living in France in the 1930s, the Chagalls conceived the idea of commemorating their native town with a book. The title they chose was Burning Lights, an allusion to the festive candles that in their childhood had lit up the holidays of the Jewish year.

About the Author

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BELLA ROSENFELD CHAGALL (November 1985 – September 1944) was a Jewish Belarusian writer and the first wife of painter Marc Chagall. Chagall’s works include The Burning Lights and First Encounter.

Praise For…

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“A happy collaboration between painter Marc Chagall and his wife Bella. . . . Chagall’s illustrations capture that special quality of fantasy blended with truth.”
—Saturday Review

“In simple prose, Mrs. Chagall brings us into close contact with the Russian-Jewish community of the last generation—a life that is now physically in ruins but spiritually alive.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Pure pleasure to read . . . evocative, wistful. There is none who will not love this little book.”
—New York Herald Tribune