Itsik Malpesh was born the son of a goose-plucking factory manager during the Russian pogroms; his life saved on the night it began by the young daughter of a kosher slaughterer. Or so he believes. Exiled during the war, Itsik eventually finds himself in New York, working as a typesetter and writing poetry to his muse, the butcher's daughter, whom he is sure he will never see again. But it is here in New York that Itsik is unexpectedly reunited with his greatest love -- and, later, his greatest enemy -- with results both serendipitous and tragic. His story is recounted in his memoirs thanks to the most unlikely of translators -- a twenty-one-year-old Boston college student who, in meeting Itsik, has embarked upon a lie that will define his future and the most extraordinary friendship he'll ever know. Spanning decades and continents, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter is an immigrant's epic saga filled with adventure, humour, retribution and romance; a love-letter to Jewish history that almost inadvertently tells a tale of the entire twentieth century. Stories this passionate, surprising and enthralling are both hard to find and hard to forget.