These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life, with a command of language and the imagination that place Englander at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction.

The title story, inspired by Raymond Carver’s masterpiece, is a provocative portrait of two marriages in which the Holocaust is played out as a devastating parlor game. In the outlandishly dark “Camp Sundown” vigilante justice is undertaken by a group of geriatric campers in a bucolic summer enclave. “Free Fruit for Young Widows” is a small, sharp study in evil, lovingly told by a father to a son. “Sister Hills” chronicles the history of Israel’s settlements from the eve of the Yom Kippur War through the present, a political fable constructed around the tale of two mothers who strike a terrible bargain to save a child. Marking a return to two of Englander’s classic themes, “Peep Show” and “How We Avenged the Blums” wrestle with sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity and peril. And “Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother’s Side” is suffused with an intimacy and tenderness that break new ground for a writer who seems constantly to be expanding the parameters of what he can achieve in the short form.

Beautiful and courageous, funny and achingly sad, Englander’s work is a revelation.

内森•英格兰德（Nathan Englander），美国新生代杰出作家，曾入选《纽约客》“21世纪的20位作家”。他1970年生于纽约，在正统犹太人社区长大，毕业于纽约州立大学和爱荷华大学写作中心。目前在纽约市立大学亨特学院教授创意写作。

内森•英格兰德1999年出版短篇小说集《为了释放难以忍受的冲动》，赢得广泛赞誉，获得2000年笔会/马拉默德奖、美国艺术与文学学院休•考夫曼奖、古根海姆奖金等奖项。2007年出版的长篇小说《特情部》讲述阿根廷“肮脏的战争”期间的故事，同样备受赞誉。

2012年的短篇小说集《当我们谈论安妮•弗兰克时我们谈论什么》是他的第三部作品，标题戏仿卡佛的经典之作。该书深受众多名家褒扬，获2012年度弗兰克•奥康纳国际短篇小说奖，并入围普利策奖短名单，也被《新闻周刊》、《科克斯评论》、美国公用电视台、亚马逊网站等评为年度最佳图书。