Ellis Island and other Stories consists of a novella (the title story) and ten short stories whose variation in length, content, style, and theme attest to the remarkable versatility of the writer. The stories involve mountain climbing, soldiering, rowing, life, death, love, art, dreams, priests, rabbis, children, Arctic loons, and more, and more. Each story is true to itself, created by a writer whose language is a thing of beauty and a joy to read.

Contrary to common practice, the book does not begin with the title story. Instead, we are treated to "The Schreuderspitze."… The story focuses on the dilemma of a deeply sensitive man, a talented photographer, who, when his wife and children are killed in an accident, flees from his beloved Munich to a small resort in the Alps…. He never climbs the Schreuderspitze, but in a series of dreams which for him become more...