Dimensions
154 x 234 x 39mm
A writer's search for the truth behind his family's tragic history in World War II.
When Daniel Mendelsohn was a boy, he would walk into a room and some of his older relatives would begin to cry. As he grew older, he discovered that he reminded them of his great uncle Shmiel, who had been killed during the Holocaust in Poland, along with his wife and four daughters. Their fate was a subject never mentioned in the family.
Decades later, Mendelsohn came across a bundle of desperate letters written by Shmiel in 1939 hinting at a horrible betrayal, and set out to discover what really became of his six family members. Thus began a five-year quest that took him to a dozen countries on four continents, and finally led back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began - and where the heart-wrenching solution to a decades-old mystery awaited him.
Deftly moving between a worldwide odyssey, childhood reminiscences and reflections on Biblical texts and Jewish history, 'The Lost' is a deeply personal story, as well as a reminder of the fundamental need for new voices to keep Holocaust memories alive.