Gimpel the Fool

Singer's first collection of stories, Gimpel the Fool, is a landmark of world literature and attracted international attention when it was first published in 1957. The title story, translated by Saul Bellow, follows the exploits of Gimpel, an ingenuous baker, who is universally deceived but declines to retaliate. Other protagonists are not so innocent. Hodle, of "The Gentleman from Cracow," is wed to Ketev Mriri, Chief of the Devils, and Nathan, of "The Unseen," leaves his wife for a demon in the form of a young woman. Enlightened or condemned, all characters inhabit the pre-World War II ghettos of Poland, and take shape in Singer's distinctive prose.