The Postcard

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEARTIME MagazineNPRLibrary JournalThe Globe and MailLilithForward MagazineToronto StarThe New Yorker ¡°A testament to the power of imagination and an investigation of empathy.¡±¡ªVogue ¡°Stunning.¡±¡ªLeslie Camhi, The New Yorker ¡°A can¡¯t-miss novel.¡±¡ªChicago Review of Books ¡°Compelling.¡±¡ªThe Washington Examiner Anne Berest¡¯s The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. It is at once a gripping investigation into family trauma, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life. 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 Op¨¦ra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest¡¯s maternal great-grandparents, Ephram and Emma, and their children, No¨¦mie and Jacques¡ªall killed at Auschwitz. Years after the postcard is delivered, the heroine of this novel is moved to discover who sent it and why. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the travails of the twentieth century and partly restored through the power of storytelling.