Synopses & Reviews
A cornerstone of the scriptural canon, The Book of Psalmshas been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. This timeless poetry is beautifully wrought by a scholar whose translation of The Five Books of Moseswas hailed as a 'godsend' by Seamus Heaney and a 'masterpiece' by Robert Fagles. Alter"s The Book of Psalms captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary illuminates the obscurities of the text.
Review
"Alter takes us back to the essence of the meaning. . . . Everything is clearer, seeming to have been rinsed not in the baptismal waters of the New Testament but in the life-giving water of the desert." James Wood
Review
"A considerable achievement. . . . Alter holds me to his darkly economical texts." The New Yorker
Review
"You think you know these texts . . . until you read Alter, who reignites their beauty in bracing and unexpected ways." Harold Bloom New York Review of Books
Synopsis
A cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. This timeless poetry is beautifully wrought by a scholar whose translation of the Five Books of Moses was hailed as a "godsend" by Seamus Heaney and a "masterpiece" by Robert Fagles. Alter's captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary illuminates the obscurities of the text.
Synopsis
A brilliant new translation and commentary of one of the Bible's most cherished and powerful books.
Synopsis
One of 's Best Books of the Year and winner of the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement.
About the Author
Robert Alter's ongoing translation of the Hebrew Bible, the magnificent capstone to a lifetime of distinguished scholarly work, has won the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. His immense achievements in scholarship ranging from the eighteenth-century European novel to contemporary Hebrew and American literature earned Alter the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Los Angeles Times. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.