The Postcard

by Anne Berest Narrated by Barrie Kealoha

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 03/20/2023

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. (May)

From the Publisher

FIVE STARRED REVIEWS, AN INSTANT NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER, AND A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

Named a Most Anticipated Book by the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Bustle, Book Riot, Vogue
Named a May ABA Indie Next Pick
Finalist for Fiction and Book Club for the National Jewish Book Award
Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, the Prix Renaudot des lycéens, and the ELLE Readers Prize

“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 

“The Postcard is also a historical detective story about how to uncover those truths—and what remains forever lost in the fragments of documentation that leave a scattered trail.”—Lucas Wittmann, TIME Magazine

“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

“In what feels like a literary magic trick, Berest transforms her own family’s complex and heartbreaking Holocaust history into a novel that masterfully blends elements of drama, mystery and philosophy. It’s propulsive yet deep—an intimate, exacting contemplation of loss that somehow ends in love.”—Kate Tuttle, People Magazine

“Stunning...[The Postcard] leaves us wondering whether the opposite of memory is not forgetting, but rather indifference.”—Leslie Camhi, The New Yorker

“The Postcard is...a powerful exploration of family trauma...transmitted in the womb or down the generations; a longing for what we don’t know and can never know of the people whose lives are responsible for our own existence, and an internalization of the very worst that humans can do to one another, visited on one’s own family.”—Lauren Elkin, The Washington Post 

“Reading this novel is intimate...It is as though Berest has taken us by the hand to lead us through the family home and search for the family graves that don’t exist. Who are your invisible ones? she continues to ask through the tour, and we are forced to answer, both on her account and our own.”—Virginia Reeves, New York Journal of Books

“The Postcard recreates in stunning detail the lives of Berest’s lost family members and weaves them into a detective story, loosely centered on the postcard.”—The New York Times

“A can’t-miss novel.”—Chicago Review of Books

“An “un-put-down-able” book is like a double rainbow — rare and oh so magical. Titles like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.... Now comes another un-put-down-able book, The Postcard, by French writer Anne Berest.”—Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books

“Compelling.”—The Washington Examiner

“Whenever I put it down, I was pulled back by the sheer strength of Berest’s storytelling. Her ability to conjure real people in surreal circumstances while digging deeply into her own psyche is profound. My understanding of that time and my post-war family’s reaction to it runs deeper as a result.”—Helene Siegel, Jewish Journal

“Straddling the boundary between fiction and memoir, this is one of the most inventive books I read this year.... A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how European amnesia about the Holocaust affects Jewish citizens today.”—Forward, A Best Book of the Year

“This novel is a beautiful, affecting portrait of mother and daughter searching for their family history.”—Nichole LeFebvre, On the Seawall

“In this riveting, poignant and unflinching autofiction, Berest (the great-granddaughter of painter Francis Picabia and Resistance fighter Gabriële Buffet) pursues the mystery ruthlessly....This brilliant novel, at times harrowing in its telling, is surely one of the finest of the year.”—Janet Somerville, The Toronto Star 

“[Berest] deftly intertwines the story of her research with the stories she uncovers.”—Elizabeth Edelglass, Hadassah Magazine

“Undeniably compelling...A testament to the power of imagination and an investigation of empathy.”—Vogue, A Most Anticipated Book of 2023

“Intimate, profound, essential.”—ELLE Magazine

★ “Phenomenal...powerful...brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

★ “Not only a significant contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust but a moving reflection on loss, memory, and the past, in equal measures heartwarming and heartrending. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal (starred review)

★ “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)

★ “[A] brilliant work of autofiction...The book derives enormous power from seemingly small details...This is a gut-wrenching, exceptional work.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

★ “A unique piece of autofiction that unfolds like a thriller while seamlessly addressing a number of hefty social issues past and present... Berest’s moving storytelling brings her ancestors’ story to life in dramatic, artful ways, often interspersing historical events with running discussions between mother and daughter.”—Alice Cary, BookPage (starred review)

“A masterfully woven family story covering five generations of women, The Postcard is a true story that reads like a novel, and a historical narrative with lessons still relevant to today.”—Lilith Magazine, A Best Book of 2023

“Though partially a mystery and even a spy thriller, The Postcard ultimately reads like an absorbing and tragic biography of an extended family, ripped apart by the cruelties of Vichy France.”—Debra Sparks, Frenchly

“An important story...It will open people's eyes. Anne did her homework—she knows what she's talking about.”—Isa Fernandez, Loveland Magazine

“Full of suspense and emotion, The Postcard is a quest for origins that plunges us into the darkest hours of European history. A deeply moving book.”—Leïla Slimani, author of The Perfect Nanny

“The Postcard is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read, and certainly the most beautiful I’ve read in recent years. It floored me, to put it mildly. I will never forget Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie, and Jacques. Universal figures, they are a part of my, of our family now.”—Valérie Perrin, author of Fresh Water for Flowers

“A novel of such intimate power that one feels it in the body as it’s read…A brave act of survivorship and storytelling.”—Kathryn Ma, author of The Chinese Groove

“Absolutely compelling and engrossing, The Postcard by Anne Berest and translated by Tina Kover is a story of memory and loss and a new standout in literature about the Holocaust.”—Caitlin Baker, Electric Literature, “Indie Booksellers Recommend 13 Books for 2023”

“I loved this book so much. I cannot stop thinking about it...It’s a book that will haunt you and make you think about family legacy, traditions, and so much more.”—Elisa Shoenberger, Book Riot, A Best Book of Spring 2023

“Will deepen readers’ understanding of that horrific event while clarifying the role of memory, loss, and the past.”—Library Journal, “Best World Literature of 2023.”

“I highly recommend “The Postcard” – even if you’ve been tempted to never again read a novel about the Holocaust – if only to learn what the true meaning of what it feels like to be the child and grandchild of survivors. It also shines a light on France, its past and its outlook on Jews during contemporary times.”—The Reporter

“Based on actual events in the author’s life [The Postcard] transcends the usual. It renders the tragedy poignantly and with impact that can be felt in the gut...This prize-winning book is one not to be missed by anyone who cares about justice and human dignity...Absolutely intriguing.”—Eric Boss, MPIBA

“In this sweeping family saga, Berest illuminates opportunities for kindness and betrayal in wartime France and the long echo of the Holocaust’s atrocities...will appeal to fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Book Thief.”—Booklist

“The story overall is poignant, tense, restless, and ultimately pivotal, as Anne not only solves her mystery, but, more importantly, gains her identity...The anguish and horror of genocide arrive with fresh impact in an absorbing personal account.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Combines the excitement of a thriller with the emotional power of a requiem…A moving, extraordinary book.”—Le Point

“I think it's time we get to know this amazing author better.”—Advanced Reading Copy

"The vividness of Berest’s imagination is given all the more force for being firmly couched in the rigorous research that she documents as the book continues, in quasi-Proustian flashbacks seamed with precise analysis and candid self-disclosure. The reality she presents is one you can accept."—The Sydney Morning Herald

“Wonderfully constructed, sweeping…As addictive as it is transformative.”—La Croix

“Absolutely captivating.”—Paris Match

“Both personal and universal, timely and eternal…Magnificent.”—Madame Figaro

Library Journal

★ 02/01/2023

In this Prix Goncourt finalist, Lélia, a Frenchwoman living in Paris, receives a postcard with nothing on it but four names, which happen to be those of her grandparents and an aunt and uncle who perished during the Holocaust. She shows the postcard to her daughter, and neither of them has a clue as to who might have sent it or why. Lélia has kept a voluminous file over the years on her lost family, and she and her daughter set out to unravel the mystery behind the postcard. Through flashbacks, award-winning French author Berest (Sagan, Paris 1954) reimagines her own family history (that postcard really existed), while relating events surrounding the perished family, the grandparents originating in Moscow, then traveling with their children to Latvia and Palestine and finally settling in France some time before the German occupation. She also fills her daughter in on the life of Myriam, grandmother to Lélia and the sole survivor of her family. Effectively translated by Kover, the narrative has a somewhat complex structure, but despite all the flashbacks, the story is not hard to follow, and the well-drawn characters readily gain readers' sympathy. VERDICT Not only a significant contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust but a moving reflection on loss, memory, and the past, in equal measures heartwarming and heartrending. Highly recommended.—Edward B. Cone

Kirkus Reviews

2023-03-11
A Jewish family’s experience across multiple generations, researched by a mother and daughter, shines a spotlight on French antisemitism, both historic and contemporary.

The arrival in 2003 of an unsigned postcard, delivered to her mother Lélia’s postbox in Paris, bearing the names of four family ancestors murdered at Auschwitz, forces Anne Berest properly to consider her Jewish heritage. The result is this autofiction sharing the tragic saga of one branch of her forbears, the Rabinovitches, seeking peace and a safe home in the shifting European landscape of the 20th century. Lélia, who has methodically pieced together the story of her grandparents, now shares it with Anne, starting with Ephraïm and Emma’s marriage in Moscow and the birth of their first child, Myriam, Lélia’s mother, who will be the sole survivor. Two more children, Noémie and Jacques, are born, while the Rabinovitches move, for political reasons, to Latvia, then France. But Ephraïm fails to secure French citizenship for the family, and, as their lives become increasingly circumscribed after the German occupation, first Noémie and Jacques and then the parents are arrested, imprisoned, and slaughtered. Berest’s descriptions of captivity are notably horrific. Years later, as Anne’s child reports antisemitism at school, Anne remembers the postcard and begins a quest to find its author. Now the narrative switches from historical record to detection, involving a private eye and a graphologist, before turning more introspective as it traces Myriam’s experience. Having escaped into the French free zone with her husband, she settles in a remote Provencal cottage, then comes back to Paris and joins the Resistance. As the war ends, she witnesses the return of skeletal survivors from Germany. The story overall is poignant, tense, restless, and ultimately pivotal, as Anne not only solves her mystery, but, more importantly, gains her identity.

The anguish and horror of genocide arrive with fresh impact in an absorbing personal account.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160154220
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,135,309

Videos