Yom Kippur in Amsterdam: Stories (Library of Modern Jewish Literature)

Whether set in Maxim Shrayer’s native Russia or in North America andWestern Europe, the eight stories in this collection explore emotionallyintricate relationships that cross traditional boundaries of ethnicity, religion,and culture. Tracing the lives, obsessions, and aspirations of Jewish-Russianimmigrants, these poignant, humorous, and tender stories create anexpansive portrait of individuals struggling to come to terms with ghosts oftheir European pasts while simultaneously seeking to build new lives in theirAmerican present.The title story follows Jake Glaz, a young Jewish man apprehensiveabout intermarriage to a Catholic woman. After realizing Erin will not convert,Jake leaves the United States to spend Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, “abeautiful place for a Jew to atone.” In “Sonetchka,” a literary scholar andhis former Moscow girlfriend reunite in her suburban Connecticut apartment.As they reminisce about their Soviet youth and quietly admire eachother’s professional successes, both wrestle with the curious mix of prosperity,loneliness, and insecurity that defines their lives in the United States.Yom Kippur in Amsterdam takes the immigrant narrative into the twentyfirstcentury. Emerging from the tradition of Isaac Babel, Vladimir Nabokov,and Isaac Bachevis Singer, Shrayer’s vibrant literary voice significantlycontributes to the evolution of Jewish writing in America.