Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970)— winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966. The novels and short stories included in this book are published in Russian for the first time and cover the entire creative path of the writer. Agnon's prose is a kind of palimpsest, in which the lines of centuries—old Jewish writing constantly appear under the text of a modern author who is tormented by existential questions. Agnon avoids ambiguity in the interpretation of plots and images, often depriving the reader of rational support in the garden of branching paths of the past and present. A detailed historical and cultural commentary explains the details of Jewish life and deciphers references to religious sources, enriching the reader's perception with additional overtones.