Herbert Eisenreich (1925-1986) was an ironic observer of Viennese middle-class mores. His stories, which have been compared with those of Maupassant and Chekhov, are subtle, acerbic, unsentimental portraits of failed relationships, misunderstandings, momentary confrontations with life and love and death. Human suffering, according to Eisenreich, is caused not so much by social and political ills as by the human failure to communicate.