The Moslem Wife and Other Stories

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The year printed at the end of each story indicates its original date of publication. In this collection I have reprinted the text of each story as it appeared in the author’s most recent published version: “About Geneva” (The Other Paris 1956); “When We Were Nearly Young” (In Transit 1988); “My Heart Is Broken” and “The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street” (My Heart Is Broken 1964); “An Autobiography” (The Pegnitz Junction 1973); “Saturday” and “In Youth Is Pleasure” (Home Truths 1981); “The Latehomecomer” and “The Moslem Wife” (From the Fifteenth District 1979); “Grippes and Poche” and “Overhead in a Balloon” (Overhead in a Balloon 1985).

D.S.

GRANNY was waiting at the door of the apartment. She looked small, lonely, and patient, and at the sight of her the children and their mother felt instantly guilty. Instead of driving straight home from the airport, they had stopped outside Nice for ice cream. They might have known how much those extra twenty minutes would mean to Granny. Colin, too young to know what he felt, or why, began instinctively to misbehave, dragging his feet, scratching the waxed parquet. Ursula bit her nails, taking refuge in a dream, while the children’s mother, Granny’s only daughter, felt compelled to cry in a high, cheery voice, “Well, Granny, here they are, safe and sound!”

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