The Jews of Barnow stories

Karl Emil Franzos an Austrian-Jewish novelist wrote The Jews of Barnow in the nineteenth century. This moving piece illustrates the daily routines and difficulties of a Jewish community in the fictitious Eastern European village of Barnow. The work beautifully captures the Jewish inhabitants characters and habits providing a rich and compassionate glimpse into their everyday routines traditions and aspirations. Franzos immerses readers in the inner lives of Barnows Jewish people demonstrating their pleasures and sufferings as a minority population in a mostly non-Jewish milieu. The plot centres around Reb David a respected member of the community and his trials and tribulations serve as a microcosm of the larger Jewish experience in Eastern Europe at the time. The work goes into problems of identity faith in God and contradictions between tradition and modernity as it progresses. The subtle and nuanced picture of Jewish life and culture in Franzos work is outstanding. Some stories are fascinating and fantastic while others sneak up on you and draw you in. With an eye-catching new cover and carefully typeset content this version of The Jews of Barnow is both current and intelligible.