Isaac Bashevis Singer

In a Singer story, if a character sees a dybbuk (a possessing spirit), they do not scream and run. They sigh, ask it what it wants, and try to negotiate a rent agreement. Singer normalized the impossible. He wrote about the supernatural exactly as Gabriel García Márquez wrote about magic—as a fact of village life.

He settled in New York City. He felt isolated and linguistically severed from his roots.