‘Thoughtful, highly observant, and humane’ Guardian

Two thousand years of human struggle

Five tales of family breakdown, political struggle, and monomaniacal obsession from one of the defining voices of the European Jewish diaspora.

Moving back through time from the First World War to Ancient Rome, these stories play on the tension between religion, society and individual with masterful irony. We encounter heroes and bookworms, visionaries and gadabouts, patriarchs and rebels – united across the centuries by faith, and by the intensity with which they live and die, their individual passions blazing out against the forces of history.

Includes:

‘Buchmendel’

‘Downfall of the Heart’

‘The Miracles of Life’

‘In the Snow’

‘The Buried Candelabrum’

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Anthea Bell and Eden and Cedar Paul.