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Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander (born 1970) is an American author of short fiction and novels whose works frequently examine Jewish identity, family dynamics, and historical trauma through a lens informed by his Orthodox upbringing in New York.^[1]^[2] Educated at Binghamton University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Englander debuted with the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges in 1999, which achieved national bestseller status and introduced his distinctive voice blending humor with moral inquiry.^[3]^[4] His subsequent publications include the novels The Ministry of Special Cases (2007), set amid Argentina's Dirty War, and Dinner at the Center of the Earth (2017), a meditation on Israeli-Palestinian conflict, alongside the Pulitzer Prize finalist collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (2012).^[4] Englander has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction, and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, with his stories appearing in outlets such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic.^[4]^[5] He currently serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University and resides in Toronto with his family.^[6]

Early Life and Background

Orthodox Jewish Upbringing

Nathan Englander was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York, where Judaism was practiced as a strictly religious observance without cultural dilutions.^[7] His parents originated from Brooklyn, and he grew up alongside a sister in a household emphasizing religious discipline and ritual adherence, including extended family influences varying from Orthodox to one reform grandfather.^[8] The family's environment instilled a profound sense of Jewish identity, with Englander later recalling his childhood as one where he felt inherently Jewish rather than American, marked by a pervasive fear of antisemitism and potential recurrence of historical pogroms.^[8] His education occurred in a local yeshiva, featuring rigorous daily schedules from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. under rabbis from traditional Brooklyn and Eastern European backgrounds, focusing heavily on Jewish texts like the Talmud while limiting exposure to secular subjects.^[8] The surrounding neighborhood formed a tight-knit Orthodox enclave, which Englander described as a "Jewish Shangri-la," yet it was punctuated by overt antisemitic incidents, such as swastikas painted on the family home and synagogue.^[8] This community reinforced insularity, with limited interactions beyond Long Island until later years, fostering an education that Englander critiqued as anti-intellectual and insufficiently engaging for deeper theological inquiry.^[7] Childhood experiences were deeply intertwined with Holocaust awareness and survival hypotheticals; Englander and his sister routinely played the "Anne Frank game" or "Righteous Gentile Game," speculating which non-Jewish neighbors might hide them in the event of a second Holocaust.^[9] ^[8] Personal encounters with violence, including being beaten for his Jewish identity, underscored the precariousness of their existence despite the protective community bubble.^[7] Religious observance dominated daily life, with Shabbat entailing strict prohibitions like darkened rooms without electric aids—predating common workarounds such as Shabbat lamps—and an absence of non-religious leisure that confined activities to religious study and family rituals.^[7] This highly structured routine cultivated discipline through repetitive practices, though it also sowed seeds of rebellion against the conformity, as Englander noted the lack of intellectual challenge in rabbinic teachings contributed to his eventual departure from Orthodoxy upon encountering broader perspectives.^[10] ^[7]

Education and Formative Experiences

Englander attended the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, a private Jewish day school offering a yeshiva-style curriculum that emphasized Orthodox religious observance alongside secular studies.^[11] This environment reinforced his early immersion in Jewish texts and traditions, though he later described it as leaving gaps in exposure to broader Western literature.^[12] He enrolled at Binghamton University (then State University of New York at Binghamton), where he double-majored in English and Judaic studies, graduating with a B.A. in 1991.^[13] Compared to his insular upbringing, the university's diverse courses and community proved liberating, expanding his intellectual horizons beyond Orthodox constraints.^[11] A pivotal formative experience occurred during his junior year abroad from 1989 to 1990 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which he characterized as life-changing for immersing him in Israel's cultural and political realities.^[14]^[15] This period, involving study amid the First Intifada, intensified his engagement with Jewish identity, history, and secular influences, prompting subsequent summer returns to Israel.^[14] Following graduation, Englander pursued creative writing at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, earning an M.F.A.^[14] There, under faculty guidance, he honed his craft in a rigorous program known for fostering narrative innovation, marking a shift toward professional literary development away from his religious roots.^[16] This graduate training, combined with his earlier exposures, laid the groundwork for themes of faith, exile, and assimilation recurring in his work.^[17]

Literary Career

Debut and Short Fiction

Englander published his debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, on March 16, 1999, through Alfred A. Knopf.^[18] The volume comprises nine stories centered on Jewish characters navigating faith, identity, and moral dilemmas, often set in contemporary Orthodox or Hasidic communities.^[19] The title story depicts a Hasidic man in Soviet-era Russia granted permission by a rabbinical court to visit a prostitute as relief from his wife's frigidity, highlighting tensions between religious stricture and human desire.^[20] Other tales explore themes of assimilation, exile, and ethical compromise, drawing from Englander's own Orthodox upbringing while employing satirical and empathetic lenses.^[21] The collection garnered critical acclaim for its assured prose and fresh voice in Jewish-American literature, positioning Englander as a successor to writers like Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth.^[21] It became a national bestseller in both hardcover and paperback formats, reflecting strong commercial reception alongside literary praise.^[22] Reviewers noted its irreverent energy and ability to transcend ethnic specificity, with stories appearing in prestigious anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories prior to book form.^[3] For this debut, Englander received the 2000 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, affirming its technical and thematic impact.^[2] ^[1] These honors underscored the stories' precision in capturing the absurdities and profundities of religious life, though some critiques observed a reliance on familiar tropes of Jewish humor and pathos without radical innovation.^[23]

Novels and Longer Works

Englander published his debut novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, in 2007 through Alfred A. Knopf. Set in Buenos Aires during the onset of Argentina's Dirty War in 1976, under General Jorge Videla's military junta, the narrative centers on Kaddish Poznan, a Jewish man from a stigmatized family background who erases names from Jewish tombstones for a living, and his wife Lillian, as their son Pato disappears amid the regime's abductions of dissidents.^[24] The novel examines familial resilience and bureaucratic absurdity in the face of state terror, drawing on historical accounts of the estimated 30,000 "disappeared" during the junta's rule from 1976 to 1983.^[25] His second novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth, appeared in 2017, also from Knopf. The story unfolds across timelines from 2002 to 2014, intertwining the experiences of an unnamed American-Israeli prisoner held in solitary confinement in an Israeli black site with broader events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the Second Intifada and operations in Gaza.^[26] It features elements of espionage, personal betrayal, and moral ambiguity, with the protagonist's backstory revealing his role as a spy whose actions contribute to violence on both sides, culminating in a clandestine meeting in a Gaza tunnel.^[27] In 2019, Englander released kaddish.com, his third novel, published by Knopf. The plot follows Larry "Shuli" Sacks, a lapsed Orthodox Jew who, after his father's death in 1999, hires an online service to recite the traditional Kaddish mourning prayer on his behalf to evade familial and religious obligations; two decades later, upon learning the proxy has died, Shuli embarks on a quest to rectify the spiritual lapse through direct confrontation with Orthodox rituals and family dynamics.^[28] The work satirizes modern dilutions of Jewish tradition while probing themes of guilt, redemption, and the tensions between secularism and religious duty in contemporary American Jewish life.

Plays, Adaptations, and Other Writings

Englander adapted his short story "The Twenty-Seventh Man" into a play of the same name, which premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in New York on September 25, 2012.^[29] The work dramatizes the arrest and execution of Yiddish writers during Stalin's purges in 1952, focusing on a fictional young prisoner added to the list of condemned authors.^[30] He later adapted his Pulitzer Prize finalist short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" into a stage play, which received its world premiere at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego on September 18, 2022.^[31] The play explores tensions between two couples—one secular Jewish-American and one ultra-Orthodox Israeli—discussing faith, friendship, and the Holocaust over drinks, echoing Raymond Carver's structure while incorporating post-October 7, 2023, updates in recent productions.^[32] Its European premiere occurred at the Marylebone Theatre in London on October 4, 2024, directed by Patrick Marber and starring Joshua Malina as the secular husband.^[33] Beyond theatrical adaptations, Englander co-translated and provided commentary for The New American Haggadah (2012), a modern English rendition of the Passover text collaborated on with novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.^[34] His essays have appeared in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post.^[35]

Themes and Intellectual Contributions

Explorations of Jewish Identity and Tradition

Nathan Englander's works often examine the tensions inherent in Jewish identity, particularly the interplay between stringent Orthodox observance and modern secular impulses, informed by his own upbringing in an Orthodox community in Nassau County, New York.^[36] His fiction portrays characters grappling with religious rituals as anchors of identity amid personal and historical disruptions, reflecting a broader diasporic experience where tradition provides continuity but also constraint.^[24] Englander has described this as drawing from an "Orthodox world" he escaped yet comprehends intimately, using narrative to probe ethical dilemmas at the sacred-profane boundary rather than prescribing adherence.^[37] In his debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (published April 1999), Englander depicts protagonists in insular Jewish enclaves confronting the rigidity of halakha—Jewish law—against human frailties, such as a rabbi granting permission for sexual release to a pious husband starved by his wife's modesty vows.^[21] These tales synthesize mid-20th-century Jewish literary motifs of assimilation and piety, positioning Orthodox life as a microcosm for universal struggles with authority and desire.^[21] Similarly, the title story from What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (2012) tests Jewish loyalty through a "Anne Frank Game" among friends, exposing fractures in intergenerational transmission of Holocaust memory and cultural solidarity.^[38] His novels extend these inquiries into historical crucibles: The Ministry of Special Cases (2007) follows a Jewish family in 1970s Argentina during the Dirty War, where erasing a son's past to evade regime persecution clashes with ancestral burial customs, underscoring tradition's role in preserving identity amid erasure.^[24] In kaddish.com (2019), the protagonist, an assimilated American Jew, inherits his late father's Orthodox prayer obligation for the dead—recited daily for 11 months—and leverages online services to outsource it, only to reclaim ritual authenticity, illustrating technology's disruption of inherited spiritual duties.^[39] Englander's revised Haggadah (2012) further adapts Passover seder texts to emphasize tenuous links to tradition, portraying Jewish continuity as fragile chains susceptible to breakage in contemporary exile.^[38] Across these, Englander employs humor and satire to dissect Orthodoxy's insularity without endorsing secular drift, as seen in stories deconstructing Holocaust reverence or faith's communal narratives, prioritizing character-driven realism over didacticism.^[40] He resists self-identification as a "Jewish writer," arguing his obsessions with moral quandaries transcend ethnicity, though Jewish protagonists dominate, rooted in experiential fidelity rather than thematic imposition.^[37] ^[14] This approach yields portraits of identity as negotiated performance, where tradition endures not as immutable dogma but as a contested inheritance shaping ethical navigation in profane worlds.^[41]

Political and Historical Engagements

Englander has incorporated historical Jewish traumas, notably the Holocaust, into his short fiction to examine identity and survival. In his 2012 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, stories such as the title piece depict contemporary Jewish anxieties rooted in Holocaust memory, including games children played simulating hiding from Nazis, reflecting intergenerational fears instilled in Orthodox communities.^[42] His yeshiva education emphasized the Holocaust as a perpetual threat, fostering a worldview where Jewish existence remained precarious, as he described growing up with narratives of potential recurrence.^[9] These historical engagements extend to broader Jewish textual traditions; in 2012, Englander co-translated and contributed commentary to The New American Haggadah with Jonathan Safran Foer, modernizing the Passover narrative to connect ancient exodus themes with contemporary exile and redemption motifs.^[43] Politically, Englander's most direct literary foray is his 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a thriller framed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featuring a captured spy and his guard amid events from the Oslo Accords to Ariel Sharon's coma. Englander conceived the work over nearly two decades, aiming to capture the conflict's human complexities without advancing a fixed agenda, as he stated it was not intended as a "political book" pushing preconceptions.^[44] ^[45] In interviews, he affirmed a strengthened personal commitment to peace, viewing literature's role in political turmoil as fostering empathy rather than resolution, though the narrative's portrayal of mutual suffering has drawn interpretations of critiquing Israeli policies while humanizing Palestinian perspectives.^[44] ^[46] Beyond fiction, Englander has commented on writers' duties amid chaos, arguing in a 2017 discussion that literature preserves individual truths against ideological pressures, drawing from his shift from a insular, right-leaning Orthodox upbringing to secular inquiry.^[47] His works often parable contemporary issues like occupation through biblical lenses, as in a 2016 story allegorizing Israel's West Bank policies via ancient divine covenants.^[48]

Reception and Impact

Awards, Acclaim, and Commercial Success

Englander received the PEN/Malamud Award in 2000 for his debut short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges.^[6] He also won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the same work.^[4] In 2012, Englander was awarded the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, worth €25,000, for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.^[49] The collection was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.^[2] Additional honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Bard Fiction Prize.^[50] His short fiction has garnered significant literary acclaim, appearing in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories.^[51] Englander was named one of The New Yorker's "20 Writers for the 21st Century."^[2] Critics have praised his debut collection for its inventive exploration of Jewish themes, leading to inclusions on multiple "Best Books of 1999" lists.^[52] Later works, including the novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth (2017), have been noted for their engagement with historical and political subjects, sustaining his reputation in literary circles.^[6] Commercially, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges achieved bestseller status, reaching its 12th printing with 80,000 copies sold by early 2000.^[52] What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank became an international bestseller, translated into more than a dozen languages.^[53] While Englander's sales reflect niche literary appeal rather than mass-market dominance, his books have maintained steady publication and adaptation interest, including stage versions of his stories.^[6]

Criticisms, Controversies, and Viewpoint Debates

Englander’s short fiction has drawn criticism for its frequent use of high-concept scenarios involving Orthodox or traditional Jews in absurd or profane contexts, which some reviewers contend risks reducing complex identities to caricature or "Jewish minstrelsy" lacking the outrage or depth found in predecessors like Philip Roth or Bernard Malamud.^[38] For instance, stories such as "Peep Show" and "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" have been faulted as contrived and overly reliant on broad comic premises, evoking underdeveloped Woody Allen-esque ideas rather than probing deeper psychological or cultural tensions.^[38] Similarly, "The Tumblers" has been critiqued for sentimentality, with its Holocaust-era acrobats portrayed through mock-naïveté that over-explains tragedy and dilutes the horror into humiliation, echoing but paling against Isaac Bashevis Singer's parables.^[38] In "Sister Hills," Englander’s explicit political analogies—equating Israeli settlement disputes to biblical sibling rivalries—have been seen as undermining narrative ambiguity, turning a potential parable into didactic commentary on territorial claims.^[54] Critics argue this approach simplifies the settlement controversy, problematizing compatibilist views that reconcile religious tradition with modern statehood but without fully grappling with causal security dynamics or historical precedents.^[54] His 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth, centering on an Israeli prisoner's moral reckoning amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sparked viewpoint debates over its portrayal of Israel as a nation trapped in cycles of violence and denial.^[46] Reviewers from outlets sympathetic to Palestinian perspectives have praised its grim depiction of Israeli belligerence and sympathy for Palestinian characters, yet faulted underdeveloped figures and a reversion to conventional two-state resolutions without innovative causal analysis.^[46] Conversely, the novel's emphasis on an American Jewish protagonist's disillusionment—triggered by massacres and leading to betrayal—has elicited accusations of an overly negative Israeli mindset, with Ariel Sharon rendered as a remorseful symbol of destructive tendencies, potentially amplifying anti-Zionist narratives while underemphasizing empirical threats like rejectionism.^[46] Englander has described himself as an "Israel arguer," shifting positions fluidly in debates, which underscores tensions between his commitment to nuance and perceptions of left-leaning bias in conflict portrayals.^[55] Broader debates surround Englander’s thematic engagements with Jewish assimilation and orthodoxy, as in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank," where secular Jews face loyalty tests via a hypothetical Anne Frank visit, prompting discussions on performative versus intrinsic identity amid rising antisemitism.^[56] Some interpret his ex-Orthodox lens as critiquing religious insularity through satire, while others view it as nostalgic or insufficiently critical of secular drift's erosion of communal resilience.^[38] These elements reflect ongoing literary tensions over representing Jewish experience without exoticizing or pathologizing it, particularly in post-Holocaust contexts where empirical data on assimilation rates—such as Pew surveys showing declining observance—intersect with causal debates on cultural survival.

Personal Life and Views

Family, Relocation, and Professional Roles

Englander was born in 1970 and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family on Long Island, New York, where he attended yeshiva and grew up in a close-knit, observant community alongside his sister.^[57]^[9] His parents, both born and raised in Brooklyn, instilled a traditional religious environment that emphasized insularity and ritual observance.^[8] He is married to a professor, with whom he has children, and has discussed the challenges of balancing fatherhood with his writing demands.^[58]^[59] After his upbringing in New York, Englander relocated to Israel in the mid-1990s at around age 19, living there for approximately five years; this period marked a personal shift away from strict Orthodox practice toward secularism.^[8]^[55] He attended Hebrew University in Jerusalem during this time.^[58] Upon returning to the United States, he resided in locations including Brooklyn, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, before settling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in recent years, partly due to his wife's academic career.^[60]^[59]^[61] In addition to his primary role as an author, Englander holds the position of Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University, where he teaches creative writing, and has conducted stints at NYU's international campuses, such as in Paris.^[58]^[59] He has also served as a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library and at the American Academy in Berlin, supporting his literary pursuits.^[6]

Evolving Perspectives on Religion, Israel, and Culture

Nathan Englander was raised in a strictly Orthodox Jewish community on Long Island, where Judaism was framed exclusively as a religion without cultural dimensions, enforcing rigid observance from childhood.^[7] He adhered to these practices until age 19, when he traveled to Israel and, during his first Shabbat in Jerusalem, violated Sabbath rules by riding a bus, anticipating divine retribution that never materialized, prompting a cascade of rule-breaking that marked his departure from organized religion.^[17] This experience exposed him to a secular Jewish continuum absent in his upbringing, leading him to embrace an actively irreligious life, though he later critiqued his Orthodox education as anti-intellectual and insufficiently engaging with theological inquiries that might have retained his faith.^[7] By his own account, he identifies as an atheist but resists the term, channeling former religious passion into writing rituals, such as a six-day work cycle with a rest day modeled on creation narratives, and treating craft as a surrogate belief system.^[10] Englander's perspectives on Israel similarly transformed through direct exposure, beginning with his 19-year-old sojourn where the country's Jewish diversity allowed him to feel "American" amid universal Jewishness, accelerating his religious disillusionment.^[17] Over subsequent decades, he described a "long evolution of ideas based on experience," expressing enduring affection for Jerusalem while adopting a critical stance toward Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as reflected in his 2017 novel Dinner at the Center of the Earth.^[44] In interviews, he emphasized shared human claims on both sides—such as Israelis and Gazans perceiving themselves surrounded by existential threats—without endorsing either narrative, focusing instead on power imbalances, revenge cycles, and empathy for figures like Israeli generals and Palestinian leaders, while insisting his work neither whitewashes nor betrays Israel.^[7] On broader culture, Englander's shift from insular Orthodoxy to secularism broadened his engagement with Jewish identity as fluid and multifaceted, incorporating diaspora assimilation, Holocaust anxieties, and familial dynamics in his fiction, often contrasting rigid tradition with adaptive modernity.^[17] His Israeli revelations underscored cultural Judaism's viability beyond religiosity, informing stories that probe identity boundaries without romanticizing loss of observance, and he credits Talmudic training for fostering critical "what if" reasoning applicable to secular storytelling.^[7] This evolution manifests in works like kaddish.com (2019), where he interrogates divine absence through digital-age rituals, blending cultural heritage with contemporary skepticism.^[39]

Bibliography

Short Story Collections

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.^[62]^[63] What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. ISBN 978-0-307-95870-9.^[64]^[62]

Novels

Englander has published three novels, each exploring themes of Jewish identity, historical trauma, and moral ambiguity within familial and political contexts. His debut novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, appeared in 2007 from Alfred A. Knopf.^[24] Set amid Argentina's Dirty War in 1976, under the military junta led by General Jorge Videla, it centers on Kaddish Poznan, a Jewish man from a family of historical pimps, who erases surnames from Jewish gravestones for assimilationist clients.^[25] When his son Pato is abducted by state forces, Kaddish and his wife Lilian navigate bureaucratic horrors and personal desperation in a quest for answers, highlighting the intersection of Jewish outsider status and authoritarian disappearance campaigns that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.^[65] In 2017, Englander released Dinner at the Center of the Earth, also from Knopf, a nonlinear narrative blending espionage and romance against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[27] The protagonist, an unnamed American Jew turned spy, is held in solitary confinement in an Israeli secret prison starting in 2002, reflecting on his betrayal of a mentor-figure akin to a political leader and a clandestine affair with a Palestinian woman.^[26] Flashbacks span from the 1990s Oslo Accords era to the 2014 Gaza conflict, culminating in a tunnel encounter that underscores failed peace efforts and personal reckonings, with the title referencing a surreal underground meal symbolizing stalled negotiations.^[66] Englander’s most recent novel, kaddish.com, published in 2019 by Knopf, examines Orthodox Jewish mourning rituals and filial duty.^[28] Protagonist Larry "Shuli" Sacks, having lapsed from strict observance, hires an online proxy in 1999 to recite the Kaddish prayer for his late father, violating traditional requirements for daily in-person recitation by a son.^[67] Two decades later, guilt drives Shuli to reclaim the obligation, infiltrating his brother's devout Brooklyn community and confronting family fractures, including a sibling rivalry rooted in religious divergence. The work draws on halakhic details, such as the year-long mourning period, to probe authenticity in faith and redemption's costs.^[68]

Plays and Miscellaneous Works

Englander adapted his short story "The Twenty-Seventh Man" into a play of the same name, which premiered on November 7, 2012, at The Public Theater in New York City.^[29] The work is set in a Soviet prison in 1952, depicting the arrest of twenty-six prominent Yiddish writers by Joseph Stalin's secret police, with a fictional twenty-seventh man added among them; it explores themes of literature, persecution, and absurdity under totalitarianism.^[69] Published by Dramatists Play Service, the play draws directly from historical events like the Night of the Murdered Poets while incorporating Englander's fictional elements.^[69] Englander also adapted his 2011 short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" into a stage play, a one-act serious comedy examining intergenerational tensions and Jewish identity through a reunion of two couples—one Israeli-American, the other post-9/11 American Jews.^[32] The adaptation has seen productions including at the Old Globe Theatre and, in a version updated to reference events after October 7, 2023, at the Marylebone Theatre in London in 2024, directed by Patrick Marber.^[31] ^[32] The play's dialogue-driven structure echoes Raymond Carver's influence on the original story, probing moral hypotheticals around antisemitism and loyalty.^[33] Among Englander's miscellaneous works, he co-translated and contributed to the New American Haggadah in 2012, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer, which modernizes the traditional Passover text with contemporary commentary while preserving ritual elements.^[50] His nonfiction essays have appeared in outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Vogue, and Esquire, often addressing Jewish cultural themes, writing craft, and personal reflections on identity and history.^[6] These pieces, while not forming a dedicated collection, extend his literary output beyond fiction and drama into reflective prose.^[6]

References

[1]
Nathan Englander - American Academy in Berlin
Nathan Englander was born in Long Island, New York, in 1970. His short fiction has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, and numerous anthologies.Missing: author biography<|separator|>
[2]
Nathan Englander: Author, Pulitzer Prize Finalist | PRH Speakers ...
Finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Nathan Englander is a celebrated voice in American literature who draws upon his Orthodox Jewish upbringing.
[3]
Englander, Nathan 1970– | Encyclopedia.com
... Englander. Nathan Englander Home Page,http://www.nathanenglander.com (September 14, 2007). New York State Writers Institute Web site,http://www.albany.edu ...
[4]
Nathan Englander | Penguin Random House
His books have been translated into twenty-two languages. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award, the Frank O'Connor International ...
[5]
Nathan Englander - PEN America
He was the 2012 recipient of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for What We Talk About. His short ...
[6]
Bio - Nathan Englander
He is Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University and lives with his family in Toronto. Photo by Juliana Sohn | Site design by Hop Creative.
[7]
Nathan Englander Opens Up About His Orthodox Upbringing
Nov 7, 2017 · An interview with celebrated writer Nathan Englander on Judaism, text, and Israel/Palestine, in the wake of his latest novel.Missing: early | Show results with:early
[8]
Nathan Englander: Assimilating Thoughts Into Stories
### Summary of Nathan Englander’s Orthodox Jewish Upbringing
[9]
How the Holocaust shaped one author's life and literary career
Mar 20, 2013 · Nathan Englander and his sister grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and often played the “Anne Frank game,” wondering which of their gentile neighbors would ...Missing: upbringing | Show results with:upbringing
[10]
Novelist Nathan Englander on how ritual fuels his writing | PBS News
Jun 12, 2019 · Novelist Nathan Englander grew up in a highly observant Jewish family. As such, he was accustomed to discipline and observing ritual.
[11]
Binghamton graduate writes with dark humor, Jewish wit - Pipe Dream
Apr 19, 2013 · Compared to the community he grew up in, Englander found the variety and comprehensiveness of the University's courses and community liberating.
[12]
This Week in Fiction: Nathan Englander | The New Yorker
May 10, 2010 · And having had a yeshiva education with, let us say, some holes in it, this is the first time I'd even read things like “Death of a Salesman ...Missing: high | Show results with:high
[13]
Four honorary degrees to be awarded at Commencement
May 2, 2017 · Nathan Englander, distinguished writer ... He earned his bachelor's degree from Binghamton University in 1991, attended Hebrew University ...
[14]
Binghamton's Nathan Englander takes readers beyond borders
Apr 18, 2018 · Englander first visited Israel in 1989–90, during his junior year at Binghamton University. He returned for summers and then, after earning an ...
[15]
Nathan Englander - Seattle Arts & Lectures
... University of New York at Binghamton where he pursued a liberal arts education. Englander spent a life-changing junior year abroad in Jerusalem. There he ...
[16]
Nathan Englander on the Iowa Writers' Workshop | The Writing ...
In this London Times profile of fiction writer Nathan Englander, Englander talks about his time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and his work with faculty ...
[17]
Nathan Englander: Assimilating Thoughts Into Stories - NPR
Feb 15, 2012 · The stories in Nathan Englander's new collection are based largely on his experiences growing up as a modern Orthodox Jew with an overprotective mother.Missing: formative | Show results with:formative
[18]
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories: Englander, Nathan
Book details ; Print length. 224 pages ; Language. English ; Publisher. Knopf ; Publication date. March 16, 1999 ; Dimensions. 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches.
[19]
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Englander, Nathan - Amazon.com
30-day returnsA collection of nine stories exploring Jewish faith and identity, from a Protestant's religious awakening to a Hasidic man seeking relief from his wife's ...
[20]
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (Faber and Faber) by Nathan ...
The play was originally the first short story in Englander's remarkable debut collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, published in 1999.
[21]
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges | Jewish Book Council
This is For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, by Nathan Englander. The book is a summing-up of the Jewish fiction of the past fifty years.
[22]
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
In stock Free deliveryQ: Your debut short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, was a national bestseller in hardcover and paperback, winner of the PEN/Malamud ...
[23]
BookPage coverage of 'For the Relief of Unbearable Urges'
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is 28-year-old Nathan Englander's first collection of stories: Jewish stories by a Jewish writer which transcend the ...
[24]
The Ministry of Special Cases - Nathan Englander - Books - Review
Jun 3, 2007 · In Nathan Englander's first novel, a Jewish family in Argentina is torn asunder during the country's “Dirty War.”
[25]
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander - Reading Guide
In stock Free deliveryThe story takes place in 1976 at the beginning of Argentina's Dirty War, when General Jorge Videla's military junta takes control of the country and young ...Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
[26]
Spies, Betrayal, And Some Really Good Food In 'Dinner At ... - NPR
Sep 17, 2017 · Nathan Englander's latest tells the fraught history of Israel and Palestine with quotidian details that make the story feel not historically ...
[27]
Dinner at the Centre of the Earth by Nathan Englander review
Oct 7, 2017 · A spy story that cuts between time and place brings home the devastating psychological impact of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
[28]
'Like a JDate for the Dead' - The New York Times
who's defected from Orthodox Judaism — hires a stranger to recite the Kaddish prayers ...
[29]
Book Interview: Novelist and Short-Story Writer Nathan Englander Is ...
Sep 25, 2012 · Nathan Englander's first play, "The Twenty-Seventh Man," opens at the Public Theater in New York tonight. Fuse Editor Bill Marx spoke to the ...
[30]
Englander on Stage: “The Twenty-Seventh Man” Reviewed
Nov 26, 2012 · Englander, writing his first play, now on stage at the newly renovated and gorgeous Public Theater, has taken the opening story “The Twenty- ...
[31]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank | The Old Globe
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is Englander's adaptation of his award-winning short story about two women, inseparable in high school.
[32]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank review
Oct 15, 2024 · Two couples have a sour reunion in Patrick Marber's production of Nathan Englander's play, updated from his 2011 short story to include events after 7 October.
[33]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
Based on the Pulitzer-finalist short story by Nathan Englander, don't miss this brand new serious-comedy starring West Wing and Big Bang Theory actor Joshua ...
[34]
In conversation: Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer | Fiction
Feb 10, 2012 · Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer. The two writers discuss the art of fiction, Jewishness and their new collaboration.Missing: essays screenplays
[35]
Dinner at the Centre of the Earth: Englander, Nathan ... - Amazon.com
His short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Washington Post, as well as The O. Henry Prize ...Missing: screenplays | Show results with:screenplays
[36]
Nathan Englander examines identity - Chicago Tribune
Dec 7, 2012 · A native of Long Island, N.Y., Englander grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community in Nassau County, and later lived for a time in Jerusalem. His ...
[37]
Take Five: Nathan Englander doesn't think of himself as a Jewish ...
Nov 5, 2012 · Beacon: So many of your stories have Jewish protagonists and Jewish themes. Do you identify yourself as a Jewish writer? Englander: I am really ...<|separator|>
[38]
In Nathan Englander's New Stories and Haggadah, Jews Struggle ...
Feb 8, 2012 · In the new collected stories of Nathan Englander, and in his revised Haggadah, Jews cling tenuously to the easily broken chains of tradition.
[39]
You Can Give This to Your Gentile Friends - Jewish Currents
Apr 10, 2019 · You Can Give This to Your Gentile Friends. Nathan Englander talks about God and the internet in his new novel kaddish.com.<|separator|>
[40]
Jewish “Diasporic humor” anD contemporary Jewish-american iDentity
Satirizing iconic Holocaust figures as well as deconstructing major. Holocaust questions are just two ways that Nathan Englander, Shalom Aus- lander, and ...
[41]
Nathan Englander Tests Our Faith (short essay on "The Reader" for ...
The essay examines Nathan Englander's short story "The Reader", focusing on its exploration of Jewish identity through themes of faith, narrative, and community ...<|separator|>
[42]
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/174964910
[43]
Translating God and Others: An Interview with Nathan Englander
Apr 4, 2012 · He also translated the Hebrew for the New American Haggadah, a project he worked on with Jonathan Safran Foer. Englander's play, The Twenty- ...Missing: historical engagements
[44]
Nathan Englander interview: A novel's view of Israel-Palestine conflict
Sep 12, 2017 · Englander spoke with the Journal about the challenge of writing through controversy and his commitment to peace, now stronger than ever, in ...
[45]
At the Center of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Interview with ...
Nov 21, 2017 · Nathan Englander, 47, who now lives in Brooklyn, waited almost two decades to contain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the novel's unique structure.
[46]
Englander's new novel is high entertainment, with a grim view of Israel
Feb 10, 2018 · The novel is subversive. It's incredibly anti-Israel while also being sympathetic. But the most sympathetic characters are Palestinian.
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'If You're a Writer, Literature Has Saved You At Some Point' - Hazlitt
Sep 11, 2017 · In our wide-ranging conversation, Englander and I discussed the novelist's responsibilities in times of political chaos, the bending and ...Missing: formative | Show results with:formative
[48]
Nathan Englander's Masterful Parable of Occupation - The Forward
Jun 3, 2016 · This sad, awful story is a parable of Israel's occupation of the West Bank based on a thousands-of-years-old contract with God.Missing: historical engagements
[49]
Englander wins O'Connor Prize | Iowa Now
Jul 10, 2012 · Iowa Writers' Workshop alumnus Nathan Englander is the winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. The 25000 euro prize is ...
[50]
Nathan Englander - NYU Arts & Science
Nathan Englander is the author of the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank as well as the internationally bestselling story collection.Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[51]
Nathan Englander | Wisconsin Book Festival
Oct 9, 2017 · He is Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter. Read Nathan ...Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[52]
New York State Writers Institute - Nathan Englander Gazette Article
Abandoning plans to live with his parents while studying business at a nearby college, Englander matriculated to the State University of New York at Binghamton.
[53]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
In stock Free delivery over $20 30-day returnsNathan Englander is the author of the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, an international best seller, and What We Talk About When We Talk ...
[54]
Geography of Jewishness in Nathan Englander's “Sister Hills” and ...
It appears that while Englander's story depicts and problematizes a compatibilist2 interpretation of the controversy of Jewish settlement and shows that the ...<|separator|>
[55]
Nathan Englander on “His Turducken” of a Novel: Spy Thriller, Love ...
Sep 12, 2017 · Englander's new book is at once spy thriller, love story, and meditation on the collapse of the Middle East peace talks.
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Englander's short stories prod at aspects of identity and being Jewish
Feb 17, 2012 · Nathan Englander's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank ... They accuse the second couple - secular Jews living in Florida ...Missing: antisemitism | Show results with:antisemitism
[57]
Nathan Englander: Stories Of Faith, Family And The Holocaust - NPR
Mar 22, 2013 · Englander grew up on Long Island in the mid-1970s, where he and his sister both attended a religious day school. The rabbis at the school would ...Missing: background | Show results with:background
[58]
Nathan Englander on Juggling Fatherhood and Writing
Mar 26, 2019 · She is the author of the newly released The Art of Leaving: a Memoir in Essays. Her first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize ...Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[59]
Checking in with the nomadic writer Nathan Englander, currently of ...
Jun 15, 2022 · Nathan Englander was raised in a conservative Orthodox family in Long Island. Little did he suspect that one day he would become a bestselling author.<|control11|><|separator|>
[60]
With thriller, Nathan Englander spies heartbreaking circle in Mideast ...
Oct 27, 2017 · ... Jewish writer Nathan Englander has wanted to write his new novel “Dinner at the Center of the Earth.” Englander lived and wrote in Jerusalem ...
[61]
Nathan Englander - Travel + Leisure
Nathan Englander is a Toronto-based writer and best-selling author. He is the author of the novels “Kaddish.com,” “Dinner at the Center of the Earth,” and ...
[62]
Nathan Englander Books In Order
His only training in the arts was when he attended the University of Iowa “Iowa Writers' Workshop”. He would immigrate to Israel for further collegiate ...
[63]
Nathan Englander - Goodreads
Nathan Englander is a Jewish-American author born in Long Island, NY in 1970. He wrote the short story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges.
[64]
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780307958709
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THE MINISTRY OF SPECIAL CASES - Kirkus Reviews
7-day returnsEnglander focuses tightly on the family of Kaddish Poznan, who scrapes together a living by obliterating despised surnames (those of “the famous Jewish pimps of ...Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
[66]
Love Can't Save the World, or Even Israel, in 'Dinner at the Center of ...
Sep 14, 2017 · The dinner in question takes place in the book's final scene, underground, where two people meet for a romantic date in a secret, illegal tunnel ...
[67]
Like a Prayer - Bookforum
Jun 26, 2019 · Nathan Englander's latest novel, Kaddish.com, is centered on a son's preoccupation with saving his father's soul—not for this world, but for ...Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
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David Galef: "On kaddish.com" - The Yale Review
Apr 1, 2019 · In kaddish.com, he portrays the intricacy of Judaic laws and how they form a network, a life.Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
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Nathan Englander - Dramatists Play Service
THE STORY: The setting is a Soviet prison, 1952. Joseph Stalin's secret police have rounded up twenty-six writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in ...