The Postcard
Anne Berest
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. more
464 pages, Hardcover
First published Europa Editions
4.39
Rating
18046
Ratings
2249
Reviews
Anne Berest
13 books 333 followers
Anne Berest is the bestselling co-author of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are (Doubleday, 2014) and the author of a novel based on the life of French writer Françoise Sagan. With her sister Claire, she is also the author of Gabriële, a critically acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp’s lover and muse. She is the great-granddaughter of the painter Francis Picabia. For her work as a writer and prize-winning showrunner, she has been profiled in publications such as French Vogue and Haaretz newspaper. The recipient of numerous literary awards, The Postcard was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize and has been a long-selling bestseller in France.Community reviews
In January 2003, an unsigned postcard is delivered to the Berest home with a picture of the Opera Garnier in Paris addressed to the author’s late grandmother. Handwritten, on the back of the postcard were four names – Ephraïm, Emma, Jacques, and Noémie – the names of four members of the Rabinovitch family, all of whom lost their lives during the Holocaust at Auschwitz. Ephraïm and Emma were the parents of Anne’s grandmother Myriam who was the only member of the Rabinovitch family who survived the Holocaust. However, that traumatic era in family history was seldom discussed at the Berest home and though Anne and her mother were Jewish, faith did not play a significant role in Anne’s upbringing. In fact, after the postcard arrived, it was filed away without much thought given to it. more
LA NOTTE ESCE LENTAMENTE DALLA TERRAImmagini tratte da “The Auschwitz Album” dello Yad Vashem. La fine è nota. È stata raccontata centinaia, migliaia di volte: la Soluzione Finale. I forni crematori. L’eliminazione di tutti gli ebrei, almeno quelli europei. more
Wow. I’ll review sometime soon — going back to sleep — I was a crying sobbing mess towards the end — wasn’t expecting to feel so emotional—WONDERFUL BOOK. Intimate- sad - gripping storytelling- sooooo very heartfelt. REVIEW:“The Postcard” is deeply intimate and personal…. ……historical…. more
Una novela que emociona e impresiona a partes iguales. Está construida en torno a una historia real. La investigación de Anne Berest sobre su familia materna exterminada durante el Holocausto. Ha sido premiada con el Premio Renaudot des lycéens 2021, el Premio Goncourt: la elección de los Estados Unidos 2021 y el Gran Premio de la novela Elle. Premios, todos ellos, muy merecidos. more
The Postcard by Anne Berest was written with love, curiosity, determination, strength, and for the main purpose of discovery. Anne Berest’s novel was based on the true story of her own family. It was one of the most moving and powerful books I have read about the Holocaust in a very long time. The writing was painfully honest and yet exquisite. The Postcard was divided into four parts and alternated between narratives that seamlessly wove the past and present together. more
5★Moscow, April 1919“Nachman picked up a small pencil and moistened its tip between his lips. His eyes still fixed on his children and grandchildren, he added, ‘Now, I’m going to go around the table. And I want each of you—every one of you, do you hear me. —to give me a destination. I will go and buy steamer tickets for everyone. more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club July 2023 selection and a 2023 Summer Reading Guide Minimalist Pick. If a mysterious postcard, star-crossed lovers, and a chain-smoking, meticulous genealogical note-keeping mother sounds good to you, use the sunny days of summer to balance out this heavy but moving French novel. more
4. 5 rounded up. This is a truly extraordinary book, disturbing and provocative in equal measure. And, sad to say, alarmingly timely. The GR description adequately captures the broad outline of what it’s about: the 2003 mysterious arrival at the home of a French translator of an unsigned postcard on which are written the first names of four people in her family, all of whom were killed in the Holocaust. more
The Postcard What a compelling read…… I couldn’t put it down. This story is based on the authors own tragic family history. In 2003, the Berest family receive a mysterious, unsigned postcard. On one side was an image of the Opéra Garnier; on the other, the names of their relatives who were killed in Auschwitz: Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques. Many yeasts later the author, Anne , sought to find the truth behind this postcard. more
Let me start with a fair warning. This is what happens when you read The Postcard (2021) by Anne Berest while cooking:This novel is one of the most gripping, addictive and unputdownable books I have ever read and the consequences of my total immersion are visible above. I was really caught up in this bleak, tragic but also painfully beautiful story. On the surface, Anne Berest's novel is an account of a historical investigation the author and her mother pursued, hiring a private detective and graphologist included, after they had received a bizarre and disturbing postcard. But besides family history, the book grapples with the Holocaust, loss, grieving, inherited trauma, antisemitism, what it means to be Jewish, some difficult chapters of the history of France, memory, strange coincidences and more. more
This is one of those books that I really wanted to love: from the intriguing portrait on the front cover to the idea of a tragic family history. In lots of ways this is the history of the European twentieth century made up of persecution, racism and anti-Semitism, emigration, politics and murder in the Nazi death camps. What's missing though for me is a sense of the personal, something that makes this family who they were, and not just another group caught up in the maelstrom. Although this is billed as fiction, it feels like family history/biography. The interjections of the narrator and her mother interrupt the lives and bring us constantly back to the present. more
Quelle claque ce bouquin. Difficile de trouver les mots pour en parler. C'est dur, c'est rude, c'est nécessaire, c'est émouvant, c'est beau. A lire absolument. more
When I first received this book from the library, I was intimidated by the size of it, 475 pages. For anybody who has been reading my reviews, I am not a person attracted to large books. Typically I will walk away. But…This one was different. When I began to read, I couldn’t stop. more
I’ve read a lot of WW2 books. Whether it's fiction, non-fiction, or memoirs, I feel like I've covered so many aspects of the war and the people involved. Reading The Postcard, however, made me realise there will always be new depths, greater heartache, and ongoing generational grief; the subject can never be fully told. 'The uniqueness of this catastrophe lay in the paradox of its insidious slowness and viciousness. Looking back, everyone wondered why they hadn't reacted sooner. more
Imagine sorting through your mail and noticing that you’ve just received a cryptic postcard with a picture of the Paris Opera House on one side and only four names on the reverse. Imagine then how you’d react after remembering, a few minutes later, that the Paris Opera House was one of the headquarters of the Nazi occupation of Paris and that the names were actually those of your ancestors who perished in the Holocaust. Would you feel threatened. Curious. This REALLY happened in 2003. more
It is impossible to begin this magnificent novel without confronting the cover image of a pleasing young woman – full-lipped with a mysterious smile playing across her face, her eyes a little dreamy and filled with the promise of youth. To the right of the photo is a French stamp, placed upside down. The woman is Neomie Rabinovitch, the aunt of the author, a brilliant and talented young woman who, at 19, had ambitions similar to Anne Frank. She, her brother Jacques, and soon after, their parents would be savagely rounded up, subjected to the most inhumane treatment, and callously left to die in the Nazi concentration camps. Fortunately, her niece, whose grandmother Myriam was the only one to escape their fate, does not allow her to fade into obscurity. more
In this eloquently written family story, Anne Berest has presented a carefully recreated portrait of a small Jewish family lost to the Holocaust. In 2003, her mother Leila received a postcard of the Opera Garnier in Paris with an unusual message: four names listed, Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, Jacques; these were Leila’s grandparents, aunt and uncle who died in the Holocaust. After Leila’s initial discussion of this postcard and what it’s possible meaning could be with her husband and daughters, it was filed away. Until some ten years later, when Anne was pregnant, consigned to rest and spending time with her parents. On the eve of becoming a mother Anne wanted to know more about those who had come before her. more
This is classified as a novel, but the distance between fiction and reality is a thin one. The characters living and dead all existed, and this is their story. In 2003, Anne's mother receives a postcard addressed to her grandmother Myriam at her mother's home. It contains 4 names, all of whom had died at Auchswitz in 1942. Her grandmother had been dead for years, so who had sent the card, and why. more
To say I was possessed by The Postcard and its author, Anne Berest, is not an exaggeration. I was possessed, obsessed, and grateful. It is 475 pages that I only put down when my eyes felt swollen: a novelized true story of Berest’s family’s experience when Nazis invaded and occupied France and Berest’s investigation of that many years later. It is only called a novel because Berest wanted to write it as a nonlinear novel with dialogue and full characters, changing names of collaborators so that their descendants would not be persecuted, but this is a copiously researched investigation of what happened, who did what, and how Berest came to be a secularized Jew—when she began her investigation, she didn’t identify as Jewish, look Jewish, had never followed the religion or been in a synagogue and had no experience in the culture. This mystery, quest, hunt—told with all the dramatic tension of such stories—quickly became one of the most deeply personal experiences I’ve had. more
“I’ve realized that, when we were born, our parents gave us both Hebrew first names as middle names. Hidden first names. I’m Myriam, and you’re Noémie. We’re the Berest sisters, but on the inside, we’re also the Rabinovitch sisters. I’m the one who survives, and you’re the one who doesn’t. more
The last time Europa put out a big hardcover being heralded as an instant classic it became my favorite book of the year and a new favorite author so this is an instant buy. Like it’s in my bag right now. With several other books i said “can’t wait to read this” earlier this week. Don’t judge me. more
Review soon. Loved it. The Postcard written by Anne Berest is translated from the French by Tina Kover“some sense of memory makes us attracted to places our ancestors knew, celebrate dates that were important in the past, and become drawn to people whose family once crossed paths with ours without our even knowing it. Call it psychogenealogy, or cellular memory . . more
An outstanding but deeply tragic family memoir in which Anne Berest researches the history of her Jewish family. In 2003, Anne's mother received a postcard on which just four names were written, nothing else. They are the names of the family of Anne's grandmother: her father, mother, sister and brother. All four were killed in the war. Who would write such a postcard, 60 years after the facts. more
This is a novelization of the author’s family yet it is so much more than that. It delves deeply into not only the loss of family members during the holocaust but also into identity, belonging, and the scarring of future generations as a result of survivors’ suffering and silences. The author went on a remarkable investigative journey of persistence, pain, and parallels. Frankly, I’ve never read anything quite like it. more
(3. 5) Combining a mixture of epistolary and autobiography into a novel, this was an interesting read. The first part brought me into Anne's familial history and was intrigued to keep going. I thought the writing was good and emotive enough, but the focus was in and out -- it could've been shorter. Many of us Americans don't realize how many countries were occupied in Europe by the Germans during the 1930's and 1940's. more
The Postcard arrived in France in 1990 at a relatives house. It had a pic of the Louve and was also postmarked there. It was mixed in with the letters and bills that fell on the ground and could of easily been lost. It had only four names written on it - the names of four family members who were thought to have died in concentration camps early in WWII. A father and a mother and 2 of their 3 children, one in their teens. more
But, in the midst of this enlightened discourse, there was that word that kept returning, circling back like a dark star, like some bizarre constellation, surrounded by a halo of mystery. Jew. from the Postcard by Anne BerestAnne Berest has a remarkable family history. Her grandparents moved from country to country seeking a safe harbor. Her grandmother married a Spanish Dada artist. more
C’est une véritable plongée en abîme à travers la mémoire, les archives et l’histoire de l’Europe pour retrouver l’auteur d’une carte postale anonyme. Anne Berest signe ici un roman magistral, émouvant parce que tout à la fois personnel et universel. En 2003, la famille Berest reçoit une carte postale non-signée sur laquelle figurent les noms des grands-parents de sa mère, de sa tante et son oncle - tous morts à Auschwitz en 1942. Des années plus tard, alors qu’Anne Berest est enceinte, elle se remémore cette carte postale énigmatique et veut en découvrir le sens. Avec l’aide précieuse de sa mère historienne qui a déjà fait beaucoup de recherches dans les archives, elle retrace alors le destin de ses ancêtres, les Rabinovitch, partis de Russie en 1918. more
Absolutely wonderful and devastating. A terrific meditation on generational trauma. On what it meant and means to be Jewish in Europe then and now. On the bravery of the men and women of the Resistance. On the craven bureaucratic evil of many other wartime French. more