Selected Stories

Reflections: A young Egyptian perfumer named Ren creates a scent for Cleopatra and has to leave beautiful Alexandria at her command after spending the night with her. A coming-of-age narrative full of trials brings him to Toledo, where he starts a family and unexpectedly learns of his Jewish heritage. Names are particularly important to Egyptians – his Jewish name, Ner, a mirror image of his Egyptian one, means “light.”

The One-Handed Watchmaker: Born in Toledo, a one-handed young man named Miguel reads Cervantes’ words: “I lost the use of my left hand for the glory of my right” – and realizes a simple truth: “It’s not about the hand.” After an immigrant from Moscow teaches him the art of watchmaking, he falls in love with his daughter Margarita and learns about his own father, a rabbi from Jerusalem. At the end, he opens a watch workshop named Trumpeldor after the one-handed hero of the Jewish people.

Thieves: The young artist Leonardo Berenson creates a painting based on a surrealistic vision of his lover. A talentless rival learns of his idea and steals it, becoming a New York celebrity. Leonardo himself steals something, too: a bicycle. Making a living delivering legal documents, he continues to paint. His work impresses a lawyer client and his wife, who organizes a solo exhibition of his works. Only then does he find out whose bicycle he stole…

The Juggler: A traveling artist and guitarist known in Toledo as Don Quixote organizes a street performance with his friends – the descendant of an Egyptian perfumer, a one-handed watchmaker, and a café owner named Sancho Panza. During the performance, the city bank is robbed. “I don’t trust Roma,” the investigator declares contemptuously and arrests Don Quixote, but the artist has an alibi. Only his friends learn the whole truth…

The Lilac Lovers’ Society: The vignette opens with a brief history of the lilac in Russia, which begins with Peter I bringing the first saplings home from Holland. In honor of the narrator’s mother’s birth, her father plants a bush of the hardy Michel Büchner lilac. The scent of the flower's delights “The Father of Nations“ and quite a few Soviet people. In the winter of 1937, the narrator’s grandfather is arrested and exiled to the Gulag. His daughter is taken in by her aunt and lives in her appartment’s hallway, attending a music school for gifted children. Having endured the hardships of war, she marries and is reunited with her father after 15 years of separation. In 1979, the narrator’s family emigrates. To the clatter of the train’s wheels heading west, the narrator’s mother has a dream featuring three lovers of lilacs: Peter I, “The Father of Nations,” and the soldier who tried to rape her. When they buy a house in America, they find a Michel Büchner lilac bush growing next to it. Many years later, the narrator’s mother says words he’s always remember: “Life is an endless interflowing pattern.” After her death, the lilac bush, withered from old age, suddenly sprouts a young flowering branch.