Bera and Cucumber

<p><em>Bera and Cucumber</em> is a series of eight linked short stories. The links between them are manifold and include emigration to Israel and elsewhere the Old Testament and the sea. However by far the main connection is the cosmopolitan city of Odesa specifically the Jewish quarter with its many and varied inhabitants and their professions both legal and illicit. There are also many references to the famous landmarks of the city as well as its trams shops and suburbs.</p><p><br></p><p>The language of these stories which are here translated into English for the first time mixes Russian Ukrainian Yiddish Hebrew and the unique Odesa dialect. In the title story Korotko even invents a language possibly to represent what the latter sounds like to a non-Odesite.</p>