Lily Brett is an award-winning novelist and poet as well as a brilliant short story writer. This collection brings together the two sequences of stories that were published as Things Could Be Worse and What God Wants, following the lives of a company of Melbourne friends who survived the holocaust, and the complex lives of the children they raised. Always under the shadow of their terrible history, the closeknit Jewish community portrayed in these stories tackles life with exuberance, passion and extraordinary humour. 'These wryly comic yet deeply moving stories explore layers of guilt and fear, and above all the need for belonging - to the family, to the community and to the faith.' Publishers Weekly (USA) 'Brett writes with humour and compassion whilst maintaining a typically Jewish honesty and stridency.' Slav Newsbulletin