Ozick is a kind of narrative hypnotist. Her range is extraordinary; there is seemingly nothing she can't do. Her stories contain passages of intense lyricism and brilliant, hilarious, uncontainable inventiveness.

With dashing originality and in prose that sings like an entire choir of sirens, Cynthia Ozick relates the life and times of her most compelling fictional creation. Ruth Puttermesser lives in New York City. Her learning is monumental. Her love life is minimal (she prefers pouring through Plato to romping with married Morris Rappoport). And her fantasies have a disconcerting tendency to come true - with disastrous consequences for what we laughably call "reality." Puttermesser yearns for a daughter and promptly creates one, unassisted, in the form of the first recorded female golem. Laboring in the dusty crevices of the civil service, she dreams of reforming the city - and manages to get herself elected mayor. Puttermesser contemplates the afterlife and is hurtled into it headlong, only to discover that a paradise found is also paradise lost. Overflowing with ideas, lambent with wit, The Puttermesser Papers is a tour de force by one of our most visionary novelists. "The finest achievement of Ozick's career... It has all the buoyant integrity of a Chagall painting." -San Francisco Chronicle "Fanciful, poignant... so intelligent, so finely expressed that, like its main character, it remains endearing, edifying, a spark of light in the gloom." -The New York Times "A crazy delight." -The New York Time Book Review

A collection of readings relevant to the development of an intercultural psychology which takes into account the different circumstances, needs, values, constructions of reality, and worldviews and belief systems that significantly shape the experience and behavior of cultural groups. The 34 papers and introductory essay are arranged in four parts: the politics of difference; development, adaption, and the acquisition of culture; self and other in cultural context; and diagnostic assessment, treatment, and cultural bias. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

“Four expertly turned stories” of comedy, deception, and revenge from the acclaimed author of Heir to the Glimmering World (TheNew York Times Book Review). A New York Times Notable Book Dictation brings together four long stories by this Pulitzer and Man Booker Prize finalist, forming a quartet of sly humor and piercing insight into the human heart. The title story imagines a fateful meeting between the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad at the peak of their fame. Timid Miss Hallowes, who types for Conrad, comes under the influence of James’s Miss Bosanquet, high-spirited, flirtatious, and scheming. In a masterstroke of genius, Ozick hatches a plot between them to insert themselves into literary posterity. Each story in the collection starts in the comic mode, with heroes who suffer willful self-deceit. From self-deception, these not-so-innocents proceed to deceive others, who don’t take it lightly. Revenge is the consequence—and for the reader, a delicious if dark recognition of emotional truth. In Dictation, an author whose stories have won four O. Henry first prizes “reveals herself a master” (The New York Times Book Review). “A testament to the seductions of language and the smoldering aspirations of art.” —O, The Oprah Magazine “A brilliant book, a necessary book, a book that radiates the true intelligence of literature from every page.” —The New York Observer

From one of our most preeminent writers, a tale that captures the shifting meanings of the past and how our experience colors those meanings In Antiquities, Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie, one of the seven elderly trustees of the now-defunct (for thirty-four years) Temple Academy for Boys, is preparing a memoir of his days at the school, intertwined with the troubling distractions of present events. As he navigates, with faltering recall, between the subtle anti-Semitism that pervaded the school's ethos and his fascination with his own family's heritage--in particular, his illustrious cousin, the renowned archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie--he reconstructs the passions of a childhood encounter with the oddly named Ben-Zion Elefantin, a mystifying older pupil who claims descent from Egypt's Elephantine Island. From this seed emerges one of Cynthia Ozick's most wondrous tales, touched by unsettling irony and the elusive flavor of a Kafka parable, and weaving, in her own distinctive voice, myth and mania, history and illusion.

'Sparky, mischievous, witty, dazzlingly clever' Ali Smith 'A cause for celebration. Here we have a heroine to love, a story we can't let go of' Ann Patchett It had always been my habit-- privately I felt it to be an ecstasy-- to enter, as into a mysterious vault, any public library. 1930s New York is filling with Europe's ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows, book-loving and orphaned at eighteen, takes a job as assistant to the eccentric Professor Mitwisser. Cast out from Berlin's elite, the Mitwisser family's household is chaotic and Rosie's fate there hangs on the arrival of the Mitwissers' mysterious benefactor, James A'Bair. Inspired by the real Christopher Robin, James is the Bear Boy, the son of a famous children's author. Running from his own fame, James was boy adored by the world but has grown into a bitter man. It falls to Rosie to help them all resist James's reckless orbit.

For nearly half a century the charismatic, strikingly handsome spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti gathered an enormous following throughout Europe, India, Australia and North America. From the age of eighteen he was the forerunner of the type of iconoclasm that would bring immediate fame to cult figures in the late twentieth century. Yet recent biographies have left large areas of his life in mystifying darkness. This, however, is no ordinary study of Krishnamurti, for it is written by one whose earliest memories are dominated by his presence as a doting second fathertolerant of pranks and pets, playful and diligent. For over two decades in their Ojai California haven, where Aldous Huxley and other pacifists found respite during the war years,Krinsh developed his philosophical message. He also placed himself at the centre of her parents Rosalind and Rajagopals marriage. In a spirit of tenderness, fairness, objective inquiry, and no little remorse, the author traces the rise of Krishnamurti from obscurity in India by selection of the Theosophical Society to be the vehicle of a new incarnation of their world teacher. Breaking from Theosophy, Krishnamurti inspired his own following, retaining the dedication of his longtime friend Rajagopal, himself highly educated, to oversee all practicalities and the editing and publication of his writings. How this bond of trust was breached and became clouded in confusion with a new wave of devoteeism lies at the heart of this extraordinary story. So does a portrait of intense romantic intimacy and the conundrum of Krishnamurtis own complex character.

Many people focus on the similarities between Judaism and Christianity, but the religions are quite differentand its not just because one accepts Jesus as the messiah and the other does not. The rise of Christians calling themselves messianic Jews, the successes of Christian missionaries, Jews ingratiating themselves to Evangelical Christians because of their support for the State of Israel, the overuse of the term Judeo-Christian, and the increasing use of Jewish rituals in Christian churches, blur the lines between Judaism and Christianity. Develop a better understanding of the irreconcilable differences between Judaism and Christianity, and where the two faiths hold mutually exclusive beliefs. Youll learn how Their views differ regarding God, humanity, the devil, faith versus the law, the Messiah, and more; Both faiths read the same Biblical verses but understand them so differently; and Missionary Christians use this blurring of the lines between the two faiths, and other techniques, to convert Jews to Christianity. Real interfaith dialogue begins when those engaging in it not only speak of how they are similar, but also where they differ. Real understanding begins when the topics discussed are in areas of disagreement. Judaism and Christianity: A Contrastwill help you understand the Jewish view of these disagreements.

Over 150 tales from the Talmud, the Zohar, Jewish folktales, and Hasidic lore.