The bitter smell of almonds

the long version

"The Bitter Smell of Almonds brings together for the first time Arnost Lustig's short-story collection Street of Lost Brothers, the novel Dita Saxova, and the novellas of Indecent Dreams. The works in this omnibus edition reverberate with the torments of suffering and survival, loss and contradiction. Lustig's themes are as old and as universal as humankind's search for the meaning of existence, and his characters, often confronted with people or situations they cannot comprehend, attempt to come to terms with the unthinkable and with life itself."--BOOK JACKET.