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The author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges returns with a commanding new collection of short stories that grapple with the great questions of modern life. Beautiful and courageous, funny and achingly sad, Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk about Anne Frank (Knopf) displays a gifted young author with a command of language and with a depth of imagination that place him at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction. "Put him alongside Singer, Carver, and Munro. Englander is, quite simply, one of the very best we have" (Colum McCann).
One of the most stunning literary debuts of our time, these energized, irreverent, and deliciously inventive stories introduce an astonishing new talent.
In the collection's hilarious title story, a Hasidic man gets a special dispensation from his rabbi to see a prostitute. "The Wig" takes an aging wigmaker and makes her, for a single moment, beautiful. In "The Tumblers," Englander envisions a group of Polish Jews herded toward a train bound for the death camps and, in a deft, imaginative twist, turns them into acrobats tumbling out of harm's way.
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a work of startling authority and imagination — a book that is as wondrous and joyful as it is wrenchingly sad. It hearalds the arrival of a remarkable new storyteller.
Review:
"Englander's voice is distinctly his own — daring, funny and exuberant." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review:
"Englander's nine stunningly crafted stories illuminate not just a specific community of Orthodox Jews, but universal relationships and desires." Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"[An] extraordinary debut collection...brilliant...hilarious...profound...a revelation of the human condition." New York Times Book Review
Review:
"Remarkable art....The author fills each of these pieces with vivid life, with characters that jump off the page." Newsday
Synopsis:
A work of stunning authority and imagination, Englander's debut contains ten energized, irreverent stories rooted in the weight of Jewish history and the customs of Orthodox life.
Nathan Englander's short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and numerous anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories, Englander's story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York City.
The twenty-seventh man — The tumblers — Reunion — The wig — The gilgul of Park Avenue — Reb Kringle — The last one way — For the relief of unbearable urges — In this way we are wise.
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories
Used Trade Paper
Nathan Englander
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224 pages
Vintage Books USA -
English9780375704437
Reviews:
"Review"
by Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times,
"Englander's voice is distinctly his own — daring, funny and exuberant."
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"Englander's nine stunningly crafted stories illuminate not just a specific community of Orthodox Jews, but universal relationships and desires."
"Review"
by New York Times Book Review,
"[An] extraordinary debut collection...brilliant...hilarious...profound...a revelation of the human condition."
"Review"
by Newsday,
"Remarkable art....The author fills each of these pieces with vivid life, with characters that jump off the page."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
A work of stunning authority and imagination, Englander's debut contains ten energized, irreverent stories rooted in the weight of Jewish history and the customs of Orthodox life.
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