(Fiction, 304 pp. Bulgarian, 2000; English translation, 2008)
Tragedy is overlaid with Jewish humor as an affable tailor survives war and nationalism in Central Europe between World War I and the death of Stalin. This darkly ironic novel, peppered with Yiddish jokes, fables from the Kolodetz shtetl, and the unorthodox comments of sometimes atheist Rabbi Shmuel Ben-David, offers profound insights into life’s absurdities.
