Lithuanian Jewish writer Icchokas (Itzhak) Meras is primarily known for two works.

One is "Stalemate", also known as "A Stalemate Lasts But a Moment". We read that one. It's a short novel that takes place in the Vilnius Ghetto during World War II. Meras, whose entire family perished in the war (he was saved by Lithuanian peasants), drew from his own history in painting the picture of Jewish life before and during the occupation.

The premise of "Stalemate" is agonizingly simple: a Jew plays a Nazi in chess. If a Jew wins, he lives, but the Nazi will kill the ghetto's children. If he loses, he dies, but the children live. If there is a stalemate... well, read the book! It's translated into English and is readily available. You won't regret it.

Meras' other notorious work was a novel titled "Striptease, or Paris-Rome-Paris". Somehow published in in 1974, it got him on the Soviets' shit list that ended with emigration to Israel.

No, we didn't read that one.