For the Relief of Unbearable Urges

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges on:

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Energized, irreverent, and deliciously inventive stories from Pulitzer-nominated, bestselling author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

In the collection's hilarious title story, a Hasidic man gets a special dispensation from his rabbi to see a prostitute. "The Wig" takes an aging wigmaker and makes her, for a single moment, beautiful. In "The Tumblers," Englander envisions a group of Polish Jews herded toward a train bound for the death camps and, in a deft, imaginative twist, turns them into acrobats tumbling out of harm's way. 

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a work of startling authority and imagination--a book that is as wondrous and joyful as it is wrenchingly sad. It hearalds the arrival of a remarkable new storyteller.

Praise for For the Relief of Unberable Urges

“Taut, edgy, sharply observed….A revelation of the human condition.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Englander’s voice is distinctly his own—daring, funny and exuberant.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times 

“Pitch-perfect....[Englander’s] wit has glimpses of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow; its subtlety recalls James Joyce’s Dubliners.” —Newsweek

“Extraordinary, insightful writing. Englander is a fresh, awe-inspiring voice.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Remarkable art….The author fills each of these pieces with vivid life, with characters that jump off the page.” —Newsday

“One of the classiest, most assured, impressive literary debuts I’ve come across in ten years of reviewing books….The many voices...[Englander] has give life to in this collection earn this gifted writer a distinct and distinguished niche of his own.” —Susan Miron, The Philadelphia Inguirer

Reviews

Men in Black, by James E. Young; The New York Times Book Review
Captured in Stories, The World He Left; For Author's Debut, Tales of Orthodox Jews by Mel Gussow, The New York Times