Enemies, A Love Story

Isaac Bashevis Singer · 1902–1991 · Poland / United States

Originally Sonim, di Geshichte fun a Liebe (Yiddish) · translated by Aliza Shevrin and Elizabeth Shub

Why it matters

A Holocaust survivor in postwar Brooklyn juggles a wife, a mistress, and a tangle of wartime secrets he can no longer keep straight: comedy and trauma sharing the same cramped apartment. Singer's bleakest comic novel finds absurdity inseparable from grief.

At a glance

Dark comedy and Holocaust trauma sit uneasily close together throughout.