Some of his stories have been published by Samuel J. Agnon (1888-1970, Nobel Prize in Literature 1966) as "love stories." They are tales of pain, guilt, and madness, of unrequited passion, humiliating flattery and charm, of enigmatic closeness and lasting separation, of unfulfilled togetherness and profound loneliness. Agnon's skeptical view of the world includes a focus on the aspect of separation rather than union in love relationships. "Love and separation" is the fundamental tension that runs through all the stories gathered here.