Isaac Bashevis Singer, página 2 de 5

He scampered over rooftops, swam in deep water, leapt from balconies.' Set in the vanished world of the shtetl of nineteenth-century eastern Europe, this spellbinding fable tells the story of Yasha: magician, mesmerist, juggler, sword swallower, master of escape - and breaker of hearts.

In the topsy-turvy years between the dawn of the twentieth century and the dark days of 1939, the Moskat family battled on. In Warsaw, where saints mingle with swindlers, tough Zionists argue with mystic philosophers, and medieval rabbis rub shoulders with ultra-modern painters, life is inexorably changing.

The pogrom that swept through Poland was interpreted as a sign of the Coming of the Lord. In the little town of Goray, laid waste by murder and famine, grief becomes joy as good news arrives of the second coming of the Messiah. But such perilously high hopes pave the way to hysteria, and a panic which could threaten the very existence of Goray.

Muy conocido en Polonia oriental, Yasha Mazur se dedica a recorrer diversas poblaciones representando sus vistosos números de magia, acrobacia y escapismo. Pero sus trucos y su habilidad para el ilusionismo no se limitan a los escenarios. Medio judio, medio gentil, Yasha no tiene problemas para moverse a su conveniencia entre ambos mundos y vivir sin restricciones morales. Sin ir mas lejos, sus largas giras le permiten dejar en casa a su esposa, una judia practicante, y caer en brazos de otras mujeres. Sin embargo, quiza ha de llegar el dia en el que Yasha ya no pueda escapar tan facilmente como hace en algunos de sus numeros ante el publico y se vea obligado a decidir el rumbo que debe tomar su vida.

Los cuarenta y siete relatos de la presente antología, seleccionados por el propio Bashevis Singer entre un total de casi ciento cincuenta, comprenden los incluidos en la primera y ahora clásica recopilacion Gimpel, el tonto y otros relatos, de 1957, mas los publicados hasta 1981. Dentro de esta antologia se hallan cuentos de temas sobrenaturales como "Taibele y su demonio" y "El violinista muerto"; estampas realistas de la vida en Varsovia y en los shtetlaj de la Europa del Este, como los clasicos "Un amigo de Kafka" y "El Spinoza de la calle Market", asi como relatos, como "Viejo amor" y "El reencuentro", que nos hablan de los judios desplazados desde aquel viejo mundo al nuevo, desde el East Side de Nueva York a California y Miami.

Herman Broder evitó convertirse en una víctima del Holocausto gracias a Yadwiga, una sencilla campesina polaca que lo escondió en un granero durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Ahora Herman vive en Nueva York con Yadwiga, a la que no quiere, pero con la que se ha casado por agradecimiento. Sin embargo, ademas de su actual esposa, hay en su vida otras dos mujeres: su amante, la bella y neurotica Masha, que vive separada de su marido; y Tamara, la primera mujer de Herman, a la que el creia muerta y que de repente ha aparecido de entre las nieblas del pasado. Esta complicada situacion debe solucionarse, pero Herman es incapaz de tomar una decision.

«Un relato en que se presentan unos cuantos singulares personajes en circunstancias singulares», así es como el propio autor describe su novela. La acción se desarrolla en Varsovia durante la década

El mito del gólem, que escapa del control de su creador, contado por el Premio Nobel Isaac Bashevis Cuando el rabino Leib construye un gólem para que salve a su pueblo, no se imagina el poder que va

Nouvelles mettant en scène dans l''ancienne Pologne juive ou dans le New York de la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle, des rabbins, des jeunes filles, des étudiants de yeshiva, des commères, des vieux sa

Corre el siglo XVII y Jacob -superviviente de la matanza de judíos que los cosacos realizaron en Ucrania- vive como esclavo en una aldea polaca. Mientras alterna sus solitarias tareas de pastor con sus oraciones, intenta sofocar la encendida pasión que siente hacia Wanda, la hija de su dueño y una gentil. Este sentimiento no lo abandona ni cuando, ya liberado, se traslada a otro lugar. Así que Jacob decide ir a buscarla y unirse a ella.

Corre el siglo XVII y Jacob - superviviente de la matanza de judíos que los cosacos realizaron en Ucrania- vive como un esclavo en una aldea polaca. Mientras alterna sus solitarias tareas de pastor con sus oraciones, intenta sofocar la encendida pasion que siente hacia Wanda, la hija de su dueño y una gentil. Este sentimiento no lo abandona ni cuando, ya liberado, se traslada a otro lugar. Asi que Jacob decide ir a buscarla y unirse a ella.

To mark the centennial of the birth of Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Library of America presents a major celebration of Singer''s achievement, beginning with "Gimpel the Fool" and concluding with "The Death of Methuselah." To mark the centennial of the birth of Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Library of America presents Collected Stories, a major celebration of Singer''s achievement. Beginning with Gimpel the Fool, whose title story brought Singer to sudden prominence in America when translated by Saul Bellow in 1953, and concluding with The Death of Methuselah, the collection published three years before his death in 1991, this three-volume edition brings together for the first time all the story collections Singer published in English in the versions he called his "second originals"--translations he supervised and collaborated on, revising as he worked. In addition, Collected Stories includes previously uncollected or unpublished stories from his manuscripts in the Ransom Center collections, providing a rare glimpse into the workshop of a literary genius. Here are nearly 200 stories--the full range of Singer''s vision--encompassing Old World shtetl and New World exile. Born in Poland in 1904 into a family of rabbis, Singer was raised in a traditional culture that perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War, and his haunting stories testify to the richness of that vanished world. Singer''s Old World tales reveal a wild, mischievous, often disturbing supernaturalism evocative of local storytelling traditions. After his immigration to America, Singer''s stories increasingly explore the daily lived reality and imaginative boundaries of Jewish culture as it was transplanted to the United States, revealing him to be the emblematic immigrant American writer, a writer whose vision and insights enlarged our idea of what it is to be an American.

To mark the centennial of the birth of Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Library of America presents Collected Stories, a major celebration of Singer''s achievement. Beginning with Gimpel the Fool, whose title story brought Singer to sudden prominence in America when translated by Saul Bellow in 1953, and concluding with The Death of Methuselah, the collection published three years before his death in 1991, this three-volume edition brings together for the first time all the story collections Singer published in English in the versions he called his "second originals"--translations he supervised and collaborated on, revising as he worked. In addition, Collected Stories includes previously uncollected or unpublished stories from his manuscripts in the Ransom Center collections, providing a rare glimpse into the workshop of a literary genius. Here are nearly 200 stories--the full range of Singer''s vision--encompassing Old World shtetl and New World exile. Born in Poland in 1904 into a family of rabbis, Singer was raised in a traditional culture that perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War, and his haunting stories testify to the richness of that vanished world. Singer''s Old World tales reveal a wild, mischievous, often disturbing supernaturalism evocative of local storytelling traditions. After his immigration to America, Singer''s stories increasingly explore the daily lived reality and imaginative boundaries of Jewish culture as it was transplanted to the United States, revealing him to be the emblematic immigrant American writer, a writer whose vision and insights enlarged our idea of what it is to be an American