Aspal Vintage
Out Now
Jewish Women
by Max Brod
Translated from the German
The first ever translation of Max Brod’s novel (originally published in German in Berlin, 1911) which portrays the prosperous and settled world of assimilated Prague Jewry before the First World War – the world not only of Max Brod but also of his life-long friend, the writer Franz Kafka.
Reviews of this book
‘A superb book to be sure.’
(NB Books)
‘… beautifully evokes the tensions of class, Zionism and nationalism that were about to sweep Europe.’
(Jewish Renaissance)
‘…Max Brod’s popular novel … first published in 1911 and now reissued in a lucid translation.’
(The Times Literary Supplement)
Arnold Beer: The Fate of a Jew
by Max Brod
Translated from the German
This novel by Max Brod was first published in Berlin in 1912. The eponymous hero Arnold Beer is a young Jewish man living in the assimilated community of Prague. He is talented but something of a dandy and dilettante. Some aspects of Brod’s novel are clearly autobiographical – Beer is heavily involved in the promotion of an air show and there are clear echoes of the show in Brescia in 1909 which Brod and his friend Franz Kafka attended.
Three Sentimental Stories
by Paolo Bettoni
Translated from the Italian
These tales belong to the ‘sentimental’ genre of Charles Dickens. Innocent and virtuous souls are plagued by poverty and sometimes by malevolent guardians and neighbours. Occasionally fate intervenes through generous and honest benefactors.
Short Stories
by Hans Arnold
Translated from the German
Six cameos of domestic life in North Germany in the mid-19th century, mainly concerning affairs of the heart. Arnold has a light and sympathetic touch and a legendary talent for farce.
The Innocents
by Alfredo Panzini
Translated from the Italian
Three short stories about individuals who through no fault of their own have suffered life changing traumas and in their struggle for happiness are destined to be thwarted by a seemingly malign fate aided by their own unworldliness.
Forthcoming titles
The Cedar of Lebanon
by Grazia Deledda
Translated from the Italian
The Cedar of Lebanon is a collection of thirty-one short stories which were written towards the end of Nobel prize winner Deledda’s life and published posthumously. The collection contains themes which were dear to Deledda’s heart and draw on both her Sardinian childhood and her later years in Rome.
The Happy Ones
by Marie Bernhard
Translated from the German
A novel set in a hotel high in the Bavarian Alps. A young couple and their child arrive and soon the other guests are calling them ‘the happy ones’. They have every appearance of being the perfect family but all is not what it seems.