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Book synopsis

This is a story of passion, jealousy, drunkenness, human disintegration and murder. It is set against the backdrop of harsh seasons in a bleak landscape which reflects the starkness of the narrative. Anselm Eibenschhtz reluctantly leaves his career as an artillery officer in the Austrian Army and becomes an inspector of weights and measures in a remote part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After he repudiates his wife, who has become pregnant by a clerk in his own office, Eibenschhtz becomes obsessed by the gypsy Euphemia. She is the mistress of Leibusch Jadlowker, the keeper of a tavern on the Russian border, and also of the travelling chestnut seller Sameschkin. His obsession will spell disaster and ultimate tragedy for the hapless inspector. Roth's prose - brilliantly translated by David le Vay - is lilting and rhythmic but at the same time remote and rather bloodless, which contrasts intriguingly with the story being told. The story is wrapped up almost casually. The murderer is caught and life-changing decisions for the future are made in one final scene scarcely 300 words long. But there is nothing stilted about this. Rather, the distance between narrator and characters adds an uncanny power to this mesmerizing tale. (Kirkus UK)

Book details

Book category Books in English Fiction & related items Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

• Full title: Weights and Measures
• Author: Joseph Roth
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150
• EAN: 9780720611366
• ISBN: 0720611369
• ID: 04460287
• Publisher: PETER OWEN
• Weight: 162 g
• Dimensions: 186 × 123 × 13 mm
• Date of publishing: 23. January 2002

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