The Slave, by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Penguin, £6.99 in UK)

Singer seems to have spent much or most of his long writing career re creating the virtually extinct milieu of Polish Jewry, although when this novel was first published (1962) he had been living and working in America for many years. It is not a mere piece of ghetto nostalgia, however; it is set in the 17th century and the main character, who is simply called Jacob, is in flight from Cossack massacres of his coreligionists. The Slave is a powerful, condensed, slightly claustrophic tale, originally written in Yiddish - this translation is by Singer himself and Cecil Hemley.