Anne Berest, author of THE POSTCARD

Boswell Book Company presents an evening with Anne Berest, author of Prix Goncourt finalist The Postcard. Cosponsored by Alliance Française de Milwaukee, Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, and Sam & Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies.

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.

From Kirkus: “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.”

Anne Berest is author of a novel based on the life of French writer Françoise Sagan, co-author of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are, and with her sister Claire, author of Gabriële, a critically acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp’s lover and muse.

Click here to order your copy of The Postcard from Boswell. You can also click here to purchase La carte postale in the original French. Signed copies and personalization available on pre-orders. Please note that signed copies will not be shipped until after the event.