Three untranslated texts by the prominent Austrian writer make up this book, with the titular The Star Above the Forest giving the general title. The text In the Snow, although an early work published in 1901, exudes all the mastery that established Zweig as a classic.

At the border of Germany and Poland, the members of a Jewish community are taken by surprise by an attack from Christian fundamentalists while celebrating Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, and are forced to flee.

In The Star Above the Forest, the theme is the unfulfilled love of François, a waiter at a grand hotel, for the beautiful Polish countess Ostrowska. With masterful strokes, the author conveys the multitude of contradictions of an unfulfilled love, which inevitably has no happy ending.

In the third text, The Miracle of Life, the story unfolds in the mid-16th century in Antwerp. A wealthy, devout man wishes to donate a painting to the church in gratitude for his mother’s miraculous healing. Here, Zweig tackles a series of significant themes: religion, love and its limits, and history.