Synopses & Reviews
The forty-seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now-classic first collection,
Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981. They include supernatural tales, slices of life from Warsaw and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and stories of the Jews displaced from that world to the New World, from the East Side of New York to California and Miami.
Review
"Sparkling and triumphant, Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories are filled with wonder, gratitude, humor, irony and a wry eroticism that manages to exalt the pleasures of the flesh and the soul at the same time."—Jonathan Yardley,
The Washington Post Book World"There are whole fistfuls of masterpieces in this one volume: a cornucopia of invention . . . When all is said and done, [it] is an American master's 'Book of Creation.'"—Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-91) was the author of many novels, stories, children's books, and memoirs. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.
Table of Contents
Gimpel the Fool
The Gentleman from Cracow
Joy
The Little Shoemakers
The Unseen
The Spinoza of Market Street
The Destruction of Kreshev
Taibele and her Demon
Alone
Yentl the Yeshiva Boy
Zeidlus the Pope
The Last Demon
Short Friday
The Séance
The Slaughterer
The Dead Fiddler
Henne Fire
The Letter Writer
A Friend of Kafka
The Cafeteria
The Joke
Powers
Something Is There
A Crown of Feathers
A Day in Coney Island
The Cabalist of East Broadway
A Quotation from Klopstock
A Dance and a Hop
Grandfather and Grandson
Old Love
The Admirer
The Yearning Heifer
A Tale of Two Sisters
Three Encounters
Passions
Brother Beetle
The Betrayer of Israel
The Psychic Journey
The Manuscript
The Power of Darkness
The Bus
A Night in the Poorhouse
Escape from Civilization
Vanvild Kava
The Reencounter
Neighbors
Moon and Madness