Iron­ic, under­stat­ed, mas­ter­ly prose is the hall­mark of A. B. Yehoshua’s work. The ten sto­ries col­lect­ed here are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of almost thir­ty years in his out­stand­ing career. Some of his best-loved sto­ries are includ­ed. ​“Three Days and a Child” is a chill­ing look at how a small child becomes the instru­ment of vengeance against his moth­er; ​“The Yatir Evening Express” tells the trag­ic sto­ry of remote moun­tain vil­lagers who con­spire to derail a train in order to have some con­tact with the out­side world; and in the mov­ing title sto­ry, an aging poet can­not write as the times demand, but his men­tal­ly hand­i­capped son can. These remark­ably poignant tales will touch the read­er as only the best fic­tion can.