“Lending Jacques Kohn a Zloty” – Central European Ideas in ‘A Friend
of Kafka’

Isaac Bashevis Singer grew up in Central Eastern Europe but emigrated America in 1935. Over the next forty years he published at least one short story or one chapter of longer fiction a week. He wrote in Yiddish and through his writing frequently returned to the world he had left behind. Translated into English, his work became widely recognised as a deeply resonant recreation of pre-Holocaust Europe. In 1978 the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for literature. A recurring theme in Singer’s fiction is the relationship between present and past. This theme is explored here with particular reference to Singer’s 1968 short story A Friend of Kafka.