The Postcard
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4.4 • 219개의 평가
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- US$9.99
출판사 설명
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
TIME Magazine・NPR・Library Journal・The Globe and Mail・Lilith・Forward Magazine・Toronto Star・The New Yorker
Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling.
January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.
Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Berest's phenomenal English-language debut novel (after the nonfiction work How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are), the author pieces together stories of her ancestors who were lost at Auschwitz. In 2003, when Anne is 24, her mother, Lélia, receives a cryptic postcard containing only the names of four relatives, all of whom died in the Holocaust. The postcard remains an enigma until 10 years later, when Anne, now pregnant and visiting her parents' house, decides she's ready to learn more about her roots. In flashbacks sparked by Lélia's stories, Berest builds a touching account of her great-grandparents Emma and Ephraïm Rabinovitz, whose names were on the postcard along with two of their children, and who had fled from four countries before settling in a Paris suburb in 1929. After France is invaded, Ephraïm's business is seized by the government along with his cookware patents, and the family is subjected to curfews and restrictions. Emma and Ephraïm are separated from two of their children, and the four are eventually taken to Auschwitz. With bracing prose, smoothly translated by Kover, Berest takes an unflinching look at antisemitism past and present ("And, I realized now, I was the same age as my mother and grandmother were when they were hit with the insults, the stones.... The pattern was undeniable"). The more Anne learns of her family, the more powerful her story of reclaiming her ancestry becomes. This is brilliant.
사용자 리뷰
The Postcard
I loved this book! As the daughter and granddaughter of survivors of the Holocaust, so many things in this story touched me profoundly and personally. I share many of the author’s feelings and fears about antisemitism, even today in California where I live.
This book is so timely with the rise of populist enabled fascism throughout the world. Clearly, we still haven’t learned the lessons of our past. May the better angels of our natures prevail!
What a tribute to a beautiful family...
This book was written truly from the heart and will live in my heart forever... A+. Couldn't put the book down
Amazing Novel
The research is outstanding and the writing exquisite. I didn’t want to put it down but had to on occasion to reflect on the depth of this story. Having lived a year in Paris and having traveled a bit in France plus a love of history increased my connections to this book. Thanks for delivering a chef d’oeuvre.