Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558616738
Publication Date: 11-02-2010

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Edited by Judith Miller

In this portrait of the artist as a young woman, Michal Govrin, one of Israel's most important contemporary writers, offers a kaleidoscope of stories and essays. Populated by mysterious and real people, each tale is in some way a search for meaning in a post-Holocaust world. Reminiscent of W.G. Sebald, characters irrationally and humanely find reason for hope in a world that offers little. Essays describe Govrin's visits to Poland as a young adult, where her mother had survived a death camp. Govrin journeys there after she learns that her mother had not been alone. She lost her first husband and eight-year-old son, Govrin's half brother, and kept it a secret from her second family for many years. In a multiplicity of voices, Govrin's haunting stories capture the depths of denial and the exuberance of youth.

"This is a strong, brave, and ever-shifting book—essays that trace the powerful narratives of family, history and memory, and stories that swirl mystically out of history and into dazzling floods of wonder." —Don DeLillo, author of White Noise

"A work of art of the highest quality... This work joins the few serious books that try through artistic means to face the unspeakable" —Aharon Appelfield, author of Badenheim 1939