Nathan Englander

From the author of the literary sensation "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" comes a spectacular debut novel set at the height of Argentina's Dirty War. From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, Nathan Englander's debut novel "The Ministry of Special Cases" casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina's Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won't accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, a terrifying, byzantine refuge of last resort. Through the devastation of a single family, Englander brilliantly captures the grief of a nation.

A New York Times Notable BookAn NPR Best Book of 2012These eight powerful stories, dazzling in their display of language and imagination, show a celebrated short-story writer and novelist grappling with the great questions of modern life.From the title story, a provocative portrait of two marriages inspired by Raymond Carvers masterpiece, to Peep Show and How We Avenged the Blums, two stories that return to the authors classic themes of sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity, these stories affirm Nathan Englanders place at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction.

The fate of Argentina's Jews during the 1976-83 "Dirty War" is depicted with blistering emotional intensity in this stark first novel from the author of the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (1999).Englander focuses tightly on the family of Kaddish Poznan, who scrapes together a living by obliterating despised surnames (those of "the famous Jewish pimps of Buenos Aires their . . . whores") from gravestones in a cemetery unvisited by their scandalized relatives. This earns him little respect from his wife, Lillian, who works for a life-insurance firm, and their 19-year-old son Pablo (nicknamed "Pato"), a university student whose political idealism estranges him from his parents' strategies for survival, as their country's ruling junta hunts down "undesirables" and innocent citizens swell the ranks of "the disappeared." A context of uncertainty and terror is gradually defined: Lillian invests in a steel door for their apartment; Kaddish trades his services to a plastic surgeon for rhinoplasties that may make him and Lillian look "less Jewish"; and the precautionary burning of their son's books in the family's bathtub sends Pato angrily away from them and into the clutches of their oppressors. Englander's perfectly engineered plot then takes the distraught parents into the belly of the beast as they importune the police and the eponymous Ministry (a Kafkaesque nightmare of doubletalk and indifferent brutality). They have a chilling confrontation with a prosperous general and his heartless wife and more despairing encounters with a phlegmatic relief worker, a priest who can do good only by circumventing moral action and a self-described "monster" who survives by performing the dirty war's dirtiest deeds. One stunning twist discloses Pato's fate in a way neither parent will ever accept, and the novel climaxes where it began, in a cemetery, where Kaddish hopes, against hope, to beat the murderers at their own game.A political novel anchored, unforgettably, in the realm of the personal. Englander's story collection promised a brilliant future, and that promise is here fulfilled beyond all expectations

Set in a tumultuous Buenos Aires on the cusp of a military coup, Kaddish and Lillian are a couple whose tumultuous and colourful relationship is held together by their teenage son. As Argentina's Dirty War unfolds around them, it threatens to overwhelm the infectious, mad energy of their lives, based around Kaddish's job chipping the names off gravestones of disreputable ancestors. A visit to the dreaded Ministry of Special Cases soon turns their sometimes hilarious misadventures into something much darker, in a bureaucracy run out of control.

Kaddish Poznan chips the names off gravestones for a living, removing traces of disreputable ancestors for their more respectable kin. His wife Lillian works in insurance, earning money when people live longer than they fear. Set in a tumultuous Buenos Aires on the cusp of a military coup, the couple's own turbulent relationship is held together by their role as parents dedicated to a teenage son. As Argentina's Dirty War unfolds around them, it threatens to overwhelm the infectious, mad energy of their lives. A visit to the dreaded Ministry of Special Cases soon turns their at times hilarious misadventures into something much darker.

Un groupe de juifs s'enfuit du ghetto. Dans le train qui les emmène vers une mort certaine, ils se déguisent en saltimbanques pour échapper à ce destin. Un protestant new-yorkais découvre brutalement sa nouvelle identité : celle d'un juif orthodoxe. Son univers intime bascule au bord de la folie. Sa femme refusant obstinément ses ardeurs, Dov Binyamin obtient du rabbin une dispense afin de trouver un plaisir coupable auprès d'une prostituée... Mus par des sentiments contraires et des passions quelquefois insolites, tous les personnages de Nathan Englander dessinent les contours d'une identité juive vivante et fragile.

Nueve divertidos e ingeniosos relatos que enfrentan con humor e ironía las tradiciones judías con la modernidad. Trazando un hilarante inventario de las paradojas de la condición humana, estas historias entroncan con el humor irreverente de Woody Allen y la sutiliza de Anton Chejov.

Nathan Englander es uno de los jóvenes talentos más fascinantes de los últimos años. Nueve cuentos componen este originalísimo fresco de personajes atormentados por su condición judía. Del Nueva York contemporaneo a la Europa nazi, asistimos a una magistral diseccion de la complejidad humana.

La desintegración de una familia judía durante la monstruosa dictadura argentina.Cuando pierden a su hijo Pato, Kaddish y Lilian Poznan hacen lo que está a su alcance para subsanar su ausencia y mantener la esperanza de su pronto retorno.Una historia sobre la familia, la identidad y la desaparicion, pero sobre todo una historia atemporal de padres e hijos en una nacion atenazada por la corrupcion y la tortura, donde tras cada pregunta reina el mas absurdo de los silencios.

La desintegraci n de una familia jud a durante la monstruosa dictadura argentina. Cuando pierden a su hijo Pato, Kaddish y Lilian Poznan hacen lo que est a su alcance para subsanar su ausencia y mantener la esperanza de su pronto retorno. Una historia sobre la familia, la identidad y la desaparici n, pero sobre todo una historia atemporal de padres e hijos en una naci n atenazada por la corrupci n y la tortura, donde tras cada pregunta reina el m s absurdo de los silencios.