Publishers Weekly
10/30/2023
Australian journalist Unreich recounts the life story of her mother Mira Unreich (1927–2017) in this searing debut history. Mira’s childhood in Czechoslovakia was happy, but around the time Germany annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, she began to experience antisemitism from her neighbors. In 1941, the occupying Germans forced Jews to wear identifying items on their clothing. By 1942, most of the Jewish families in their small town had been deported. Mira’s father, Dolfie Blumenstock, risked his life to get forged identity papers to hundreds of Jews and gave shelter to members of the resistance. When the Nazis came to arrest him, Blumenstock was shot while trying to escape, and Mira and her mother Genya ended up in the Plaszow death camp, where Genya soon perished. Mira managed to survive Plasvow, as well as Auschwitz. After the war, she eventually settled in Australia, where, Unreich emphasizes, she built meaningful and loving relationships. Some portions of the narrative hit a false note, as when Unreich declares that the “concept of good luck seems woven into the fabric of the Jewish people.” Still, Unreich does her mother’s experiences justice, making clear that the Nazi genocide could not crush Mira’s desire and wherewithal to lead a happy life. The result is an uplifiting, if at times overly rosy, account.(Nov.)
From the Publisher
"A delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother's love. Braiding together the past and the present, A Brilliant Life shows how the two can never be separated—how, in families especially, we are shaped by the stories we inherit." — Jonathan Freedland, bestselling author of The Escape Artist
“If A Brilliant Life were a painting, it would be hanging in a Palazzo in Italy among the classic chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio—a technique from the Renaissance era where the contrast of light and dark brushstrokes tells the whole story with some melancholy shades. Unreich has cleverly painted her mother’s story in all its shades of glory and despair; a woman who stepped into the canvas of life and painted her own bright fulfilling future.” — Harper's Bazaar
"Journalist Unreich makes a graceful book debut with a family history, gleaned from interviews that she conducted with her 89-year-old mother, Mira, before she died from cancer . . . . A daughter’s tender portrait of a woman who lived through terror." — Kirkus Reviews
"Well researched but never dry, the book shines when describing Mira’s family and her capacity to see light through horrific darkness and notice the moments of serendipity . . . We are brought into the family fold and invited to join them in Mira’s final days, enjoying the richness of the storytelling the way we might at a Shabbat meal." — Books+Publishing
"As cancer takes hold of Mira, her journalist daughter decides to interview her about her early life, her experiences in four concentration camps, her marriages and her new life in Australia. What she discovers, she relates with a filial devotion that is deeply poignant." — The Age
"Rachelle Unreich’s story of her mother’s Holocaust experiences lays bare the horror of those years . . . Woven throughout, though, and more vivid almost than their persecution and murder, is the intense love that flows through her family." — The Weekend Australian Magazine
"This powerful story reminds us of the incredible resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal. A Brilliant Life is an ode to the unbreakable bond between a mother and child and questions the role that chance, and destiny play in one’s life. We highly recommend!" — 7Weekender
"A Brilliant Life goes well beyond the horrors inflicted by the Nazis. It celebrates Mira’s spirit, her creativity, sense of style and love for her family." — Plus61J Media
"I was lucky enough to meet some of the family earlier in the year when I, along with a few other booksellers, was invited to a gathering at Mira’s house. It was a night I will not forget. We left with a warm buzz; we had just experienced something very special. Now, having read the book, I know other people will be able to get a sense of this experience; the warmth, welcome and awe of a life, despite all the odds, lived with love, generosity, and a twinkle in the eye. A life lived to the full—a brilliant life." — Readings, Australian Book Retailer of the Year
Kirkus Reviews
2023-09-05
Journalist Unreich makes a graceful book debut with a family history, gleaned from interviews that she conducted with her 89-year-old mother, Mira, before she died from cancer.
Born in a Czech village in 1927, Mira was the youngest of five children of Dolfie and Genya Blumenstock, Jewish shopkeepers. Her peaceful childhood ended in September 1940, when she was 13. Jews were banned from owning businesses or attending school, and their private property was confiscated by Czechoslovakian officials. In 1942, the round-ups began. Vowing to keep his family safe, Dolfie strategized their escape. Mira, like her siblings, had non-Jewish papers, but for her safety was sent away from the family to another town, where she rented a room and worked. At the same time as Dolfie protected his own family, he and his son smuggled Jews out of the Bochnia and Warsaw Ghettos, with the help of non-Jewish drivers. They hid the fugitives in homes, including Dolfie’s own, before sending them on to Budapest. But in 1944, the family met the fate of so many other Jews: Mira witnessed as Dolfie was murdered outside of his house; she and her mother were sent to a camp, one of over 40,000 situated all over Eastern Europe. Kraków-Płaszów, where Mira was sent first, was located in the south of Poland. “Originally a forced labour camp,” Unreich writes, “it had become an effective killing location.” By the time the war ended, Mira had spent nearly eight months in four camps; her mother and a brother had been killed. Mira’s recollections of the cruelty and sadism of the Holocaust are wrenching, yet the experiences did not quash her abiding faith in humanity. As a wife, mother, neighbor, and friend, she both embraced and enacted goodness.
A daughter’s tender portrait of a woman who lived through terror.
