The Postcard

The interweaving of past and present, the meticulous writing, the emotional depth.

This is an absolutely fascinating true story, only slightly fictionalized. A very compelling look into a historical past that we all hope never to repeat again.

I have been wanting to read more books in translation because I speak and read Spanish as well as English (and I’m fascinated by language and the various meanings it can convey), but I truly would not have expected a Holocaust novel to be as captivating and almost breathless a reading experience as this was.

The mystery element was legitimately suspenseful, the relationships among family members sincere and enduring, and the portrayal of complex characters and their moral decisions and failings nuanced and thought-provoking.

When I realized (halfway through!) that the novel is based on a thoroughly researched story of… show more.

The Postcard is a powerful and deeply moving account of a Jewish family, Anne Berest’s family, who were almost completely wiped out at Auschwitz in 1942.

The four names on the postcard that unexpectantly arrived in 2003 lists four names. Anne lists them on the page vertically, the same way names are listed in a Jewish memorial document: Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, Jacques.

Told as an unfolding mystery about these four people, The Postcard is an origin story but also one about survivorship. It is about mothers and daughters, about reconnecting to one’s faith, and about secrets.

It is one of… show more.

An amazing imaginative blend of nonfiction and reportage, The Postcard sets a mystery in motion.

In 2003, with the rest of the Christmas holiday mail, a postcard arrives at the Paris home of Annie Berest. The card is blank but for the names of her maternal great-grandparents and their two children – all killed at Auschwitz. 

Fifteen years later, Annie and her chain-smoking mother embark on a journey: discovering the fates of the Rabinovitch family who flee the Russian revolution for Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. Annie and her mother discover secrets that shatter the present; mother and daughter question the… show more.