Awards Nominee (1999) - L.A. Times Book Prize - (First Fiction) Nominee (1999) - National Jewish Book Award - (Fiction) Nominee (1999) - Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - (Fiction) Winner (2002) - Bard Fiction Prize - (Emerging Writer) Contributor(s): Author: Nathan Englander Energized, irreverent, and deliciously inventive stories from Pulitzer-nominated, bestselling author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. In the collection's hilarious title story, a Hasidic man gets a special dispensation from his rabbi to see a prostitute. "The Wig" takes an aging wigmaker and makes her, for a single moment, beautiful. In "The Tumblers," Englander envisions a group of Polish Jews herded toward a train bound for the death camps and, in a deft, imaginative twist, turns them into acrobats tumbling out of harm's way. For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a work of startling authority and imagination--a book that is as wondrous and joyful as it is wrenchingly sad. It hearalds the arrival of a remarkable new storyteller.   Review citations New York Times - pg. 36 - 04/09/2000