One of the most difficult of literary forms to master is the contemporary fable. Usually steeped in allegory, allusion, metaphysics or other forms of esoterica, this genre is one in which a book's literal meaning may be weakened by the symbolic content…. Indeed, the fable writer must walk a delicate line, balancing artistic expression with syntax and order.

Such a writer is … Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld. Badenheim 1939 … is a work of extraordinary merit, a novel carefully constructed in simplicity, an allegory lyrical in style and content, a story expressing pathos and happiness, humor and mirth, surrealism and impending doom. This fable is a tale of the Holocaust. (p. 712)

With skill and care, [Aharon Appelfeld] has produced an allegory imbued with charm, dignity, sensitivity and—in its own compassionate way—horror. Badenheim 1939 is another study of … historical events, which by themselves seem ineluctable. Here is a book of major...