Nathan Englander's prose masterfully combines brilliant phantasmagoria and masterly everyday life. Before us, as if on a theatrical stage, stories unfold, full of drama and unique humor. In the story “Reb Kringle,” an elderly rabbi with a luxurious beard is forced to work as Santa Claus for Christmas. In The Acrobats, Polish Jews from Chelm manage to escape certain death in a concentration camp by transforming themselves into acrobats. In the hilariously funny story “For the Sake of Pacifying Passions,” a Hasid, exhausted by the coldness of his wife, receives permission from the rabbi to visit a prostitute. And in all the stories of Nathan Englander, the drama of life turns into a human tragicomedy.