In this collection of stories, love, talent and magic oppose - sometimes vanquish - anti-Semitism, totalitarianism and vulgarity. The Societ stories in the book work as narratives of everyday life, while the American stories offer a sense of an emigre's alienation.

In "Jonah and Sarah, love, talent, and magic oppose--and sometimes vanquish--anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, and vulgarity. From the deceptively simple narratives "Apples Cider Vinegar and "A Hurricane Named Bob to the surrealist tale "Dismemberers and the magical "Jonah and Sarah and "The Lanskoy Road, the tempo fluctuates, but throughout, David Shrayer-Petrov seamlessly preserves familiar voices. The stories have a genuine feel for setting and eposch--Soviet stories work as narratives of everyday life, while the American segments offer an accurate sense of an emigre's alienation. Life all good works of fiction, these stories take on a mythic quality and transcend time and place. Each carries and commnicates to reader an aura of mystery, the enigma of love, and a meeting of Jewish past and present. Whether he invokes lyrical dialogue, gentle irony, or sharp polemical discourse, Shrayer-Petrov shows that he is a powerful presence in Russian and Jewish literature. For those interested in fiction about new immigrants to America or in the psychology of Jews in the two decades before the Soviet Union's collapse, this collection is a must read.