For the Relief of Unbearable Urges

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a short story collection by Nathan Englander, first published by Knopf in 1999. It has received many positive reviews. It earned Englander a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, as well as being a finalist for the 1999 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.

The collection contains nine stories, many of which are set in the Jewish Orthodox world. The title story tells of a married Hasidic Jew who receives special dispensation from a rabbi to visit a prostitute – "for the relief of unbearable urges." The story "The Twenty-seventh Man", about Yiddish writers killed by Stalin, is an allusion to the Night of the Murdered Poets.

Contents

 * "The Twenty-seventh Man"
 * "The Tumblers"
 * "Reunion"
 * "The Wig"
 * "The Gilgul of Park Avenue"
 * "Reb Kringle"
 * "The Last One Way"
 * "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges"
 * "In This Way We Are Wise"