Jirí Weil (1900-1959) belongs among those Czech authors whose work has been available to the American reader in English translation only since the early 1990’s. His major novels, Life with the Star and Mendelssohn is on the Roof, have been widely acclaimed as  masterful and highly personal accounts of the fate of the Czech Jews during World War II.

The present edition is a translation of a little-known collection of short pieces originally published in 1946. Weil is preoccupied not only with the fate of Jews, but with the entire spectrum of wartime society. His unusual language combines archaic, even Biblical elements with a stream-of-consciousness modernism. An expert translation by Rachel Harrell renders Weil’s voice masterfully.

Publisher: Michigan Slavic Publications

Year of Publication: 2002

Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

# of Pages: 90

Price: $16.00

ISBN: 0-930042-87-5

Format: Paperback

Series Name / Number: Czech Translation Series [CZT] / 2