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Released from a concentration camp after the war, Aron Blank looks for and eventually finds the only other surviving member of his family, his son Mark, whom he was forced to abandon when Mark was only two years old. Working first in the black market and later as a Russian interpreter, Aron tries to rebuild a normal life for himself and his son in East Berlin. Decades later, with Mark lost in the Six-Day War, Aron tells his story to a young interviewer—the flow of his poignant narrative occasionally interrupted by their brief exchanges, which are peppered with humor. Written with the understated elegance that brought Becker worldwide acclaim for Jacob the Liar, this is a rare portrait of Jewish life in postwar Germany and a profoundly human story of survival, friendship, and fatherly love.
Jurek Becker
Jürek Becker (1937-1997) was a Holocaust survivor and one of the few novelists of Jewish heritage in post-World War II Germany. He was the author of many acclaimed novels, including Jacob the Liar, Sleepless Days, and Bronstein's Children. Christine Becker grew up in a notable German publishing family and studied German literature and publishing at the Freie University in Berlin. In 2004, Becker edited the published collection of letters written by her husband between 1969-96, entitled Your Nonpareils, followed bya collection of essays, interviews and lectures, entitled My Father, the Germans and I, in 2007; both are published by Suhrkamp. She lives in Berlin.
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Alessandra Bastagli
Translated by
Alessandra Bastagli is the translator of Primo Levi's stories in A Tranquil Star and his essays in The Complete Works. She lives in New York.
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