books in order

Isaac Bashevis Singer Books In Order

Manor Books In Publication Order

  1. The Manor (1967)
  2. The Estate (1969)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Family Moskat (1950)
  2. Satan in Goray (1955)
  3. The Magician of Lublin (1959)
  4. The Slave (1962)
  5. The Fearsome Inn (1967)
  6. Mazel and Shlimazel (1970)
  7. Elijah, the Slave (1970)
  8. Joseph and Koza (1971)
  9. The Topsy-Turvy Emperor of China (1972)
  10. The Wicked City (1972)
  11. Enemies, a Love Story (1972)
  12. The Hasidim (1973)
  13. The Fools of Chelm (1973)
  14. A Young Man in Search of Love (1978)
  15. Shosha (1978)
  16. Yentyl the Yeshiva Boy (1983)
  17. The Penitent (1983)
  18. Why Noah Chose the Dove (1984)
  19. The King of the Fields (1988)
  20. Scum (1991)
  21. The Certificate (1992)
  22. Shadows on the Hudson (1998)

Children’s Books In Publication Order

  1. The Wise Men of Chelm and the Foolish Carp (2020)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories (1957)
  2. The Spinoza of Market Street (1961)
  3. A Day of Pleasure (1963)
  4. Short Friday and Other Stories (1963)
  5. Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966)
  6. Seance (1968)
  7. A Friend of Kafka (1969)
  8. When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories (1969)
  9. A Crown of Feathers (1973)
  10. Passions (1975)
  11. Naftali the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus and Other Stories (1976)
  12. Old Love (1979)
  13. More Stories from My Father’s Court (1980)
  14. The Power of Light (1980)
  15. Reaches of Heaven (1981)
  16. The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer (1982)
  17. Stories for Children (1984)
  18. The Image and Other Stories (1985)
  19. The Death of Methuselah (1988)
  20. The Last Demon (2011)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. In My Father’s Court (1956)
  2. Lost in America (1981)
  3. Love and Exile (1982)
  4. Conversations With Isaac Bashevis Singer (1985)
  5. My Love Affair with Miami Beach (1989)

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Isaac Bashevis Singer Books Overview

The Family Moskat

The vanished way of life of Eastern European Jews in the early part of the twentieth century is the subject of this extraordinary novel. All the strata of this complex society were populated by powerfully individual personalities, and the whole community pulsated with life and vitality. The affairs of the patriarchal Meshulam Moskat and the unworldly Asa Heshel Bannet provide the center of the book, but its real focus is the civilization that was destroyed forever in the gas chambers of the Second World War.

Satan in Goray

As messianic zeal sweeps through medieval Poland, the Jews of Goray divide between those who, like the Rabbi, insist that no one can ‘force the end’ and those who follow the messianic pretender Sabbatai Zevi. But as hysteria and depravity increase, it becomes clear that it is not the Messiah who has come to Goray.

The Magician of Lublin

The fiftieth anniversary of a lost classic a deceptively sophisticated tale of sexual compulsion and one man’s flight from loveYasha Mazur is a Houdini like performer whose skill has made him famous throughout eastern Poland. Half Jewish, half Gentile, a freethinker who slips easily between worlds, Yasha has an observant Jewish wife, a Gentile assistant who travels with him, and a mistress in every town. For Yasha is an escape artist not only onstage but in life, a man who lives under the spell of his own hypnotic effect on women. Now, though, his exploits are catching up with him, and he is tempted to make one final escape from his wife and his homeland and the last tendrils of his father s religion. Set in Warsaw and the shtetls of the 1870s but first published in 1960 Isaac Bashevis Singer s second novel hides a haunting psychological portrait inside a beguiling parable. At its heart, this is a book about the burden of sexual freedom. As such, it belongs on a small shelf with such mid century classics as Rabbit, Run; The Adventures of Augie March; and The Moviegoer. As Milton Hindus wrote in The New York Times Book Review, The pathos of the ending may move the reader to tears, but they are not sentimental tears…
Singer is a writer of far greater than ordinary powers.

The Slave

Four years after the Chmielnicki massacres of the seventeenth century, Jacob, a slave and cowherd in a Polish village high in the mountains, falls in love with Wanda, his master’s daughter. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can’t live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community. Racked by his consciousness of sin in taking a Gentile wife and by the difficulties of concealing her identity, Jacob nonetheless stands firm as the violence of the era threatens to destroy the ill fated couple.

Elijah, the Slave

A Hebrew legend is ‘told with simplicity and spirit and illustrated with richly colored pictures reminiscent of medieval art.’ Booklist. Full color illustrations.

Joseph and Koza

A devout Jew brings the word of God to the pagan Mazovia in Poland, helps abolish human sacrifice, and unites the people.

Enemies, a Love Story

Almost before he knows it, Herman Broder, refugee and survivor of World War II, has three wives: Yadwiga, the Polish peasant who hid him from the Na*zis; Masha , his beautiful and neurotic true love; and Tamara, his first wife, miraculously returned from the dead. Astonished by each new complication, and yet resigned to a life of evasion, Herman navigates a crowded, Yiddish New York with a sense of perpetually impending doom.

Shosha

Shosha is a hauntingly lyrical love story set in Jewish Warsaw on the eve of its annihilation. Aaron Greidinger, an aspiring Yiddish writer and the son of a distinguished Hasidic rabbi, struggles to be true to his art when faced with the chance at riches and a passport to America. But as he and the rest of the Writers’ Club wait in horror for Na*zi Germany to invade Poland, Aaron rediscovers Shosha, his childhood love still living on Krochmalna Street, still mysteriously childlike herself who has been waiting for him all these years.

Yentyl the Yeshiva Boy

Recognizing that Yentyl seems to have the soul and disposition of a man, her father studies the Torah and other holy books with her. When he dies, Yentyl feels that she no longer has a reason to remain in the village, and so, late one night, she cuts off her hair, dresses as a young man, and sets out to find a yeshiva where she can continue her studies and live secretly as a man.

Why Noah Chose the Dove

‘Singer’s retelling from the Old Testament gives a new dimension to the story of the Flood. Children will enjoy hearing the different animals praise their own special qualities so that each will be assured a place on Noah’s Ark. Of course, all are taken on board, but because the doveis the only one that did not boast, Noah makes the bird his messenger. Commenting that there are more doves in the world today than there are ferocious beasts, Singers says, ‘The dove lives happily without fighting. It is the bird of peace.’ Eric Carle’s brightly colored collages make this an inviting addition to collections.’ School Libaray Journal ‘Eric Carle, who has a special way with animals, contributes sumptuous pictures to a book whichis not to be missed.’ Publishers Weekly’This great storyteller has put a new and mildly moral twist on the story of Noah’s Ark…
and Eric Carle does not disappoint. His cut out portraits of the animals are colorful and vigorous, and,combined with his paintings, varied and provocative. This is good stuff for hungry little eyes.’ The Boston Globe

The King of the Fields

Aiming to stand as a metaphor for the failure of civilization to tame man’s instinctive brutality but also of his enduring idealism and hope, this novel by the Nobel prize winning author of ‘Shosha’ and ‘Enemies, A Love Story’, describes the subjugation of the Poles by an invading Germanic tribe.

Scum

In 1906, the death of his 17 year old son, Arturo, has disrupted the life of Max Barabander, sending him back to his roots in Warsaw while his wife stays in South America. Having attained wealth after a life of poverty and a prison hitch in Warsaw for theft, Max revisits scenes of his past.

The Certificate

David Bendiner, a young writer and secularized Jew, has qualified to emigrate from Warsaw to Palestine, but he’s broke, and in order to make the journey, he must enter into a fictitious marriage with a prosperous woman eager to get there. Grappling with romantic, political and philosophical turmoil, David must also confront his faith when his father, an Orthodox rabbi, shows up in Warsaw.

Shadows on the Hudson

‘A piercing work of fiction with a strong claim to being Singer’s masterpiece Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, Shadows on the Hudson traces the intertwined lives of a group of Jewish refugees in New York City in the late 1940s. At its center is Boris Makaver, a pious, wealthy businessman whose greatest trial is his unstable daughter, Anna. A chain of events disrupts the lives of the close knit community as each refugee struggles to reconcile the horrific past with the difficult present, as Singer explores both the nature of faith and the nature of love in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories

When Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1979, the Swedish Academy praised his ‘impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.’ But Singer himself says, ‘I never sit down to write to make a better world. I consider myself an entertainer.’ These four stories ‘Gimpel the Fool’, ‘Esther Kreindel the Second’, ‘The Spinoza of Market Street’, and ‘The Black Wedding’ are infused with Singer’s wit and imagination, wisdom and humor. Theodore Bikel reads these wise and funny tales in classic Yiddish storyteller cadence, injecting special warmth and resonance into Singer’s ‘inspired madness.’ 2 cassettes.

A Day of Pleasure

An ALA Notable Book. A Day of Pleasure is the winner of the 1970 National Book Award for Children’s Books.

Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories

A delightful and distinguished book of seven tales from middle European folklore by the winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature .’ ‘BL. 1967 Newbery Honor BookNotable Children’s Books of 1940 1970 ALA1966 Fanfare Honor List The Horn Book’Best of the Best’ Children’s Books 1966 1978 SLJBest Illustrated Children’s Books of 1966 NYTChildren’s Books of 1966 Library of CongressChildren’s Books of the Year 1966 CSA

A Friend of Kafka

This book of twenty stories is Isaac Bashevis Singer’s fifth collection and contains such classics as ‘The Cafeteria’ and ‘On the Way to the Poorhouse.’

More Stories from My Father’s Court

In My Father’s Court is one of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s most affecting autobiographical works. The stories in it, published serially in the Jewish Daily Forward, depict the beth din in his father’s home on Krochmalna Street in Warsaw. A unique institution, the beth din was a combined court of law, synagogue, scholarly institution, and psychologist’s office where people sought out the advice and counsel of a neighborhood rabbi. The twenty eight stories gathered here, none previously published in English, show this world as it appeared to a young boy. In ‘A Guest in the Prayerhouse,’ a man who has converted to Judaism embarras*ses the community with his extreme piety; in ‘She Will Surely Be Ashamed,’ a couple come for a divorce after forty years of marriage even though they are still in love; in the extraordinary ‘He Wants Forgiveness from Her,’ a jeweler apologizes to his former fianc e for abandoning her twelve years earlier, igniting the imagination of the young Singer, who dreams of writing stories about dark, eternal love. From the earthy to the ethereal, these stories provide an intimate and powerful evocation of a bygone world.

The Power of Light

‘The Power of Light can enrich readers of all faiths, all ages, with its descriptions of the miraculous power of light over evil. These stories also reveal Singer’s genius, whether he is relating lighthearted or suspenseful tales involving faith, hope and love.’ Publishers Weekly.

The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

The forty seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now classic first collection, Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981. They include supernatural tales, slices of life from Warsaw and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and stories of the Jews displaced from that world to the New World, from the East Side of New York to California and Miami.

Stories for Children

Thirty six stories by the Nobel Prize winner, including some of his most famous such as ‘Zlateh the Goat,’ ‘Mazel and Shlimazel,’ and ‘The Fools of Chelm and the Stupid Carp.’ Stories for Children is a 1984 New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of the Year.

The Image and Other Stories

The Image is a collection of twenty-two entertaining stories that range in time from the old days in Warsaw to recent years in America. The title story is haunted by a unique love that falls like a shadow between a newly married couple.

The Death of Methuselah

Twenty stories from the Nobel Prizewinner, including ‘Disguised,’ a transvestite tale of the yeshiva student whose deserted wife finds him dressed as a woman and married to a man, and the title story, which portrays Methuselah at the age of 969 ‘and when you pass your nine hundredth birthday, you are not what you used to be.’

In My Father’s Court

In this autobiographical work, specifically mentioned in Issac Bashevis Singer’s Nobel Prize citation, Singer remembers his childhood in Warsaw, and especially the bet din, or Jewish Court, in his father’s home on working class Krochmalna Street. Advice seekers and petitioners making wills or seeking marriage settlements daily visit the rabbi in his study. In a world on the brink of modernity, Singer’s gentle, learned father and his mother, equally pious but eminently practical, maintain a stubbornly traditional existence. In My Father’s Court is a tribute to their efforts, and a fine evocation of life in early twentieth century Warsaw.

Conversations With Isaac Bashevis Singer

Collections of interviews with notable modern writers

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