What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

A new short story collection from Nathan Englander shows him at his funniest and his most poignant. Each story presents some sort of philosophical conundrum that often strikes at the heart of Judaism's take on the modern world. Englander's characters are always bizarrely-drawn versions of people who might make rational decisions. In these stories, though, they tend to bring themselves more unhappiness and uncomfortableness through strings of rash decisions often masked in folklore and religion.

'What We Talk About When We Talk About Ann Frank' is the utterly delightful tale of what happens when two friends are brought together after many years, one of them has married a self-hating man and the other has become Hassidic Jewish. It presents the differences in surroundings and outlooks on life as a series of simmering subtle disagreements around a lunch table, ending in a stoned communal epiphany. 'Silver Hills' charts the growth of a village from two brave but foolish families to a growing community. Elsewhere, we get children bullied by the local anti-Semitic bully, a summer camp for elderly people and a very bizarre peep show. What keeps the eight stories buzzing with verve is Englander's writing, which is funny and warm about its subjects. A superb collection.