The Jew's Beech

Author: von Droste Hulshoff, Annette

Classic crime

Published on 15 April 2024 by Alma Books Ltd (Alma Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Alma Classics 101 Pages' series.

Paperback | 101 pages
198 x 128 x 9 | 130g

Based on a true story, The Jew's Beech centres on two brutal murders in rural Westphalia - the first of a local forester and the second of a Jewish moneylender near a beech tree - and the impact these events have on the life of Friedrich Mergel, a local herdsman with a turbulent family history. A prototype of the murder mystery and a thoughtful examination of village society, this intriguing novella contains hints of the Gothic and the uncanny - ominous thunderstorms, mysterious disappearances, eerie doppelgangers and grisly discoveries in the depths of the forest - as well as a famously ambiguous climax.