Shadows of Berlin is, in part, a bleak chronicle of life in Europe growing ever more hostile at the edge of World War II, part mythic parable. Bergelson's stories--passionate, honest, dark and often hilarious--hint at the possibility of redemption even as they suggest a horror just around the corner.

"David Bergelson's Berlin stories reveal a moment of incredible possibility in Jewish culture--a time when some of the greatest Yiddish writers of the day saw the German capital as a beacon for progressive, modernist creative artists. In the course of one brief...

With little of his fiction available in English translation, David Bergelson is revealed in this book to new readers seeking a more complete picture of worldwide Yiddish literature. The collection includes two short stories and a novella, which offer a taste of Bergelson's elegiac prose style.