Levin's Mill

Johannes Bobrowski (1917-1965) is known as one of Germany's greatest writers. His first novel, set in a West Prussian village in 1874, tells the story of the narrator's grandfather, who plots and schemes to ruin the Jewish newcomer who has built a mill downstream from him. With splendid irony, Bobrowski describes the diverse characters of the Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and Germans who inhabit the village, and whose affairs mirror the larger history of Poland.