A review by rachels_booknook
The Postcard by Anne Berest

5.0

The Postcard by Anne Berest 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.” 

This book is phenomenal. I couldn’t put it down. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading. 

January, 2003. An anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. 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 is moved to discover who sent it and why. In doing so, she learns her family history from her mother, and continues to piece together her ancestors’ experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. 

As early as 1919, some of her ancestors started to recognize that Europe wasn’t safe for Jews. The Holocaust did not happen in an instant. We wonder how the Holocaust happened, and we think it can never happen again, but the current rise in anti-Semitism and the silence from much of the non-Jewish community scares us that it could. 

I could say so much more about this book. Instead, I encourage you to read it yourself. To bear witness to this family’s story and see the continued effects of the Holocaust on the second, third and fourth generations of survivors. And to keep reading and learning.