And the Crooked Shall be Made Straight

"S.Y. Agnons first book-length, breakthrough work, originally published in Hebrew in 1912 and now available in English for the first time in a fully annotated edition—this novella depicts an impossible moral dilemma faced by the tragic hero Menasheh Chaim, in mid-19th century Buczacz (in today’s western Ukraine). In the framework of a traditional Jewish folktale of old world Eastern European Jewry, Agnon delivers a profoundly modern piece of litertaure, which benefits from the tension between plot and genre. • New volume of Agnon’s fiction in first-time English translation. • Volume 14 in the Toby Press’ S.Y. Agnon Library – the fullest collection of the Nobel laureate’s work in annotated English translation. • Critical introduction to the novella by translator, Professor Michael P. Kramer, unlocking the themes of exile and redemption and providing teh historical context for Agnon’s achievement with this breakthrough work. • 50 pages of annotations, unpacking Agnon’s rich symbolism and sources with which he built his intertextual masterpiece. • Annotated bibliography of criticism and scholarship on the work by series editor Jeffrey Saks. • Woodcut illustrations from the 1919 Hebrew edition published in Berlin."