The stories by blind author Oskar Baum (1883-1942) collected here offer the reader a unique take on the early 20th century: Baum’s characters draw strength from a wealth of smells, sounds and items to touch, as well as the colourful stories told by their fellow humans. The stories The Application and The Path of Blind Bruno put into words Baum’s ever-present knowledge of his own otherness, while in the novella The Beloved Baum recounts a fate in which refusal to see the world is not dependent on eyesight. Oskar Baum was a central figure in the ‘Prague Circle’ yet this fine author is undeservedly almost forgotten today.

“Was at Baum’s, heard such lovely things.”

                                                                          Franz Kafka, Diary entry on 19.12.1910