Historic Tales, published by Poets’ Choice’s Free Spirit Publishers division, is now available by mail. “Dr. Muller’s Day Off,” a short story by Dan Fuchs, appears in the collection, along with twenty-five other short stories that touch on historic themes.

Fuchs’s story, originally an epilogue in his novel, The House of Subtle Lies, tells the story of Dr. Wilhelm Muller, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who has lived in suburban New York for the past thirty years. He is a recent widower, and finds himself alone for the first time in many years.

Thanks to a letter from his prisoner pen pal, with whom he plays an ongoing chess game, Muller reflects on the subject of kindness in a post-Hitler world, which brings a family memory into sharp focus that will inform how the good doctor faces this, his final act.

You can order a copy of Historic Tales on the Poets’ Choice website.