In this collection of stories, the largest representative of Jewish literature in Hebrew, Nobel laureate Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888–1970) appears as a subtle psychologist and caustic satirist, an inventor of fantastic stories and thoughtful allegories, an explorer of the Kafkaesque labyrinths of our time. However, everywhere it is the same master, who draws inspiration from the longing for the lost world of the Jewish past with its warm collectivity, hallowed tradition and familiar, stable order of things, and from the anxiety that inspires him in the chaotic, incomprehensible and alien modern world, where all connections are severed and the person is tragically alone. These feelings that fueled Agnon’s work make him close and understandable to every thoughtful reader, regardless of his language and faith.