"Gimpel the Fool" is a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer – July 24, 1991) was a Polish Jewish American author noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978...

, translated into English by Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...

 in 1953. It tells the story of Gimpel, a simple bread maker who is the butt of many of his town's jokes. It also gives its name to the collection first published in 1957. David Roskies has put forward the view that the story constitutes a modernist revision of a story by Nachman of Bratslav.

The Collection

The 1957 collection contains the following stories:

• Gimpel the Fool
• The Gentleman from Cracow
• The Wife Killer
• By the Light of Memorial Candles
• The Mirror
• The Little Shoemakers - Tells the tale of a long line of modest shoemakers in Frampol. Focusing on one age in the line, this story tells the tale of Abba's 7 sons leaving the homeland and emigrating to America in a dynamic time.
• Joy
• From the Diary of One Not Born
• The Old Man
• Fire
• The Unseen