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 hasicid 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, and allusion to the festive candles that in their childhood had lit up the holidays of the Jewish year.
"Pure pleasure to read...evocative, wistful. There is none who will not love this little book." --New York Herald Tribune
