“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.” (amazon)  Who sent the postcard and why? This was an illuminating read  – the best book I have read this year.

★ “Electrifying…Berest is aware that she’s relating a tragedy, but her narration rejects the impulse to let her family members’ stories rest at that…Acknowledging both the horrors of the Holocaust and the humanity of those it targeted, The Postcard is a commanding family memoir.”—Foreword reviews (starred review)

“Moving…Ms. Berest has done her research, artfully weaving grim facts and figures into her family history…Let’s hope that a book like this, which encompasses both the monstrosities of the past and the dangers of the present, will guard us from complacency.”—Heller McAlpin, The Wall Street Journal

“Powerful, meticulously imagined… The Postcard (translated into a lucid and precise English by Tina Kover) takes its readers on a deep dive into one Jewish family’s history, and, inextricably, into the devastating history of the Holocaust in France… [A] powerful literary work… that contains a single grand-scale act of self-discovery and many moments of historical illumination.”—Julie Orringer, The New York Times Book Review 

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