The Village Teacher and Other Stories

The twenty-two stories in this collection, set mostly in Eastern Europe during World War Two, depict a
world fraught with conflict and chaos. Theodore Odrach is witness to the horrors that surround him,
and as both an investigative journalist and a skilful storyteller, using humor and irony, he guides us
through his remarkable narratives. His writing style is clean and spare, yet at the same time compelling
and complex. There is no short supply of triumph and catastrophe, courage and cowardice, good and
evil, as they impact the lives of ordinary people.

In “Benny’s Story”, a group of prisoners fight to survive despite horrific circumstances; in “Lickspittles”,
the absurdity of an émigré writer’s life is highlighted; in “Blood”, a young man travels to a distant city
in search of his lost love; in “Whistle Stop”, two German soldiers fight boredom in an out-of-the-way
outpost, only to see their world crumble and fall