Das Judengrab; Aus Bimbos Seelenwanderungen: Zwei Erzählungen

In a remote village that clings to the rolling hills and fertile fields of the Melk river, a solitary Jewish merchant named Samuel finds himself trapped in a web of suspicion and oppression. When his wife's inheritance draws the family back to their ancestral home, the community’s hostility forces Samuel into a precarious business that barely covers his debts, while the local authorities turn a blind eye to his pleas for justice. As illness weakens him, the family gathers around his bedside, and the notion of a fresh start begins to flicker amidst the gloom.

Against a backdrop of countryside intrigue, Rosette, their daughter Anitza, and the young steward Ive hatch a desperate plot: they will stage Samuel’s death, allowing him to slip away unnoticed while the family assumes his place in the village. Their plan hinges on a clever ruse— a lifelike dummy dressed in Samuel’s finest clothes— and the hope that the townspeople’s prejudice will keep them from probing too deeply. The early chapters weave a tense portrait of survival, loyalty, and the lengths a family will go to protect one of its own.