There Is No Other

by Jonathan Papernick

From the streets of modern Israel to the barrooms of Brooklyn to a suburban New England synagogue, the characters in these 10 stories search for love and acceptance in a world scarred by loss and loneliness. In “The Madonna of Temple Beth Elohim,” an Iraq war veteran sees a vision of the Virgin Mary on the eve of the Jewish high holidays. In “My Darling Sweetheart Baby,” a working-class drunk waits on his stoop for his disability check and the courage to proclaim his love to a local prostitute. And in the title story “There Is No Other,” a rage-filled Jewish boy, tormented by his African lineage, arrives at a school Purim party dressed as the prophet Mohammed. Magical, erotic, spiritually penetrating and terrifyingly realistic, these provocative tales continue the storytelling tradition of Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, and Nathan Englander.

Genres: Short Stories

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Jonathan Papernick's first collection of short stories The Ascent of Eli Israel was published by Arcade Publishing in 2002 and received a full-page review in the New York Times and a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

His second collection of short stories There is No Other was published by Exile Editions in the spring of 2010. Author Dara Horn wrote about There is No Other, "Every single story here delivers a knock-out punch that will leave you reeling long after you've put it down -- and revising your thinking on what life and love really mean."

In the summer of 2010, Papernick began hand-selling his books via pushcart at farmers' markets in New England and New York as Papernick the Book Peddler. The name is an homage to the classic Yiddish writer Sholem Yankev Abramovich, AKA Mendele Mocher Sforim (Mendele the Book Peddler.) Papernick the Book Peddler's motto is: Bringing Market-Fresh Fiction Directly to the People.

His novel The Book of Stone, was published in 2015. Award-winning author of The World to Come, Dara Horn called The Book of Stone, "Devastating, gripping and beautiful...Open this book carefully. You will close it changed."

Papernick's novel, I Am My Beloveds, a fictional exploration of a couple grappling with the complications of an open marriage, will be published in January 2022.

Author Lana Popovic Harper wrote, "I Am My Beloveds is a warm, funny, thoughtful, and often heart-wrenching portrait of a modern couple testing the boundaries of their relationship, while exploring the outer limits of their love for each other. It's an engaging and timely read, perfect for a generation of readers much more open to the allure (and pitfalls) of polyamory."

He is a senior writer-in-residence at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Please visit www.jonpapernick.com to learn more or to invite Jon to speak or read.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over Malamud. Jonathan Papernick is an author of such tremendous talent, terrifying intelligence, and stunning originality, he will make you wonder: why haven't I been reading him my whole life? The stories collected in THERE IS NO OTHER and THE ASCENT OF ELI ISRAEL are so confident in their telling, so masterful in voice, so full of life, they feel like instant classics - and yet, swell with all the wonder and horror and grit of today's landscape, ensuring his work is anything you've encountered before. No one mixes the pure and the profane like Papernick. He does not shy away from hot button topics but fearlessly cuts to the dark, complicated, violent and often contradictory core of religion, desire, identity, politics and spirituality with compassion, humor, and grace. Not only will his stories transport you in time and place, from Israel to Brooklyn and back again - they possess that mystical quality of feeling unwritten - as if they've sprung magically, passionately, effortlessly from the deepest well of the heart.

[Joan Gelfand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. As fiction editor, I published one of Jon's stories and when the collection came out, I promised Jon a review in Zeek but never got to writing it -so here's my best shot. The stories are edgy, interesting and well crafted. It's the 'now' Jewish exp. we all crave - not about Grandma or Shabbat but about interesting, soul searching Jewish people NOW. With this book, Jon joins the ranks of N. Englander and A. Mansbach - two of my fav Jewish authors.

[R.L. Maizes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a marvelous collection of stories. Jonathan Papernick’s voice is unique and the stories are funny and thought-provoking. I really enjoyed it.

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Papernick can write, there's no doubt about that, and these stories are filled with strange characters thrown into charged settings and situations both usual (Brooklyn undergoing gentrification) and unusual (a synagogue that also happens to be the site of an Iraq vet's vision of the Madonna) - so why didn't I rate it higher? Well, the endings of these stories often left me scratching my head and saying "Really? Why did that happen?" rather than a sense of the surprising inevitable, some of the characters seemed to be more Jewish symbols than believable people, and sex for shock value stood in for either action or character development a couple of times too many for my taste. That said, it may indeed be only a matter of my particular taste, versus yours, and I do recommend you sample Papernick, and form your own opinion.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best collections of short fiction I've read in years, and certainly the best with Jewish themes. Some stories remind me of the early Philip Roth, before he started playing mind games with Zuckerman. Others have a whiff of Kafka. But Papernick has his own voice, and he deals with very serious issues in a humorous way: call it corn beef on wry.

[Rachel]

Didn't get past the 2nd story.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graceful storytelling. A menacing swirl of sex, guilt, and resentment. Truly invokes everything good about Chekhov and Philip Roth.

[Joey Gremillion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very dark and haunting and spell bounding. Not light reading, especially the title story. Very apropos for book clubs.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible writer. Stories always surprising, some are disturbing, but they all make you really think.

[Beverly Akerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

on page 64: fantastic...!