Perlefter: The Story of a Bourgeois

Now available for the first time in English, Perlefter: The Story of a Bourgeois is a novel fragment that was discovered among Joseph Roth’s papers decades after his death. The book chronicles the life and times of Alexander Perlefter, the well-to-do Austrian urbanite with whom his relative, a small-town narrator, Naphthali Kroj, has come to live after becoming orphaned. Written circa 1928-30, Perlefter represents Joseph Roth at the very peak of his literary powers. Rich in irony and exemplary of Roth’s keen powers of social and political observation, Perlefter is an important addition to the Roth canon.