Wedding at the Graveyard: And Other Stories of the Jewish Fantastical

by Nilton Bonder

For four decades Rabbi Bonder was immersed in spirituality and sought out by people who needed comfort. He has now transformed some of these cases into fiction.

A Romanian woman, resident of Copacabana, wants to marry her dead fiancé. The discovery of a manuscript from the Inquisition, written to defame a woman, has the power to awaken lust and perversion in whomever reads it. A boy who scares his parents with paranormal powers prepares for his bar mitzvah. 

These are the subjects of Nilton Bonder’s imagination in this collection of short stories. He writes in the tradition of the best of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Each story comes from a place bordering reality with the unusual and inexplicable, revealing the little that’s required to transform the ordinary into extraordinary. With starting points from real situations (including the author himself as a young man, seriously bored in the house of Abraham Joshua Heschel), each story moves into another reality.

Previously published in Portuguese.

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The stories are well-paced and interesting. The situations in the stories were realistic as were the way the rabbi addressed them. The fantastical aspect was a good addition but my main interest was reading about the day-to-day life of the Rabbi. The settings were also interesting, giving me a look at Brazil through a different lens. Thank you to Edelweiss and Monkfish Book Publishing for the digital review copy.