Kakutani adds that it is "one of the most powerful works to emerge from the Holocaust: it is a fierce and necessary work of art." And Siri Hustvedt has written ; "When I mention this astounding novel to people, I am almost always met with blankness. It may be that its subject matter, the Nazi occupation of Prague, is grim. I don't know. What I do know is that I read the book when it came out – (the English translation, published in 1989, 40 years after its first publication in Czechoslovakia) – and it burned itself into me. The words German, Nazi and Jew never appear. There is nothing coy about these omissions. They are essential to the novel's uncanny immediacy, its urgent telling of a human story which, despite its particularity, refuses to locate itself in the past." Beyond "Life with a Star" and "Mendelssohn is on the Roof" Weil's fiction is woefully underrepresented in English-language translations. At this writing, his other novels have not been translated into English but an edition of "Colors" is available through Michigan Slavic Publications. Only Life with a Star and Mendelssohn is on the Roof, Moskva-hranice, and Dřevená lžice have been reprinted in Czech. The 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil marked by premiere of concert performance of a ballet "MAKANNA" written by the Czech composer and organist Irena Kosíková, based on his novel Makanna otec divů. The concert featured Jan Židlický as narrator, the Czech cellist František Brikcius and the Talich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestro Jan Talich. "Makanna" was held under the auspices of Sir Tom Stoppard and Václav Havel to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil (1900–1959) and as part of the "Daniel Pearl World Music Days" and made possible by the cooperation of the National Gallery, the Jewish Museum in Prague, and the City of Prague. Work Ruská revoluční literatura, 1924 Kulturní práce sovětského Ruska, 1924 Češi stavějí v zemi pětiletek, 1937 Moskva-hranice, 1937 Makanna, otec divů, 1946. Barvy, 1946 Vzpomínky na Julia Fučíka, 1947 Life with a Star, 1949 Mír, 1949 Vězeň chillonský, 1957 Harfeník, 1958 Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí, 1958, English translation Lamentation for 77,297 Victims. Prague: Karolinum Press (2021). . Na střeše je Mendelssohn, 1959 Hodina pravdy, hodina zkoušky, 1966 Moskva-Hranice, 1991 Dřevěná lžíce, 1992 Sources Translated and condensed from "Die juedische Thematik in Werk Jiri Weils" Magisterarbeit