Bewildering Stories introduces and welcomes...

Emil Draitser

Emil currently teaches Russian at Hunter College, in New York City. His literary awards include three New Jersey Council of the Arts Fellowships in Fiction and several Creative Writing grants from the City University of New York. His work has appeared in internationally reputed literary journals as well as in major newspapers.

“Salty Water” is billed in the synopsis as a “true story.” A little boy, Fima Ingerman, is one of a party of refugees who have fled the Nazi advance on Odessa and escaped to Tajikistan.

When Fima hears that the war is over, he smuggles himself into a camel caravan in hopes of meeting his father returning from the front. After all, how far away can Germany be? Its forces have pursued Fima’s people as closely as Pharaoh’s chariots in the original Exodus. The story proceeds with the benefit of two parallel points of view. And readers will believe it, keeping in mind a time-honored motto: “There is no story so truly Bewildering as reality.”

Emil Draitser’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Emil. We are looking forward to the story of Fima’s courageous quest!