What We Talk About When We Talk about Anne Frank, By Nathan Englander

This short-story collection – mournful, moral and comic by turns, continues Englander's interrogations of Jewishness which appeared in his first collection, set in Brooklyn.

Here, though, the scope is more ambitious and deeply freighted: we traverse from Florida to the Middle East and from fable to contemporary settlers, secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The titular story – a twist on Raymond Carver's, of a similar name – jumps from brilliant Woody Allen-esque dialogue and comedy to darkness.