Overview

How is the baton of experience passed from generation to generation? What is transmitted? Ardyn Halter explores the legacy of his late father Roman Halter’s experiences of the Holocaust. What is received by the “Second Generation” and how can it be expressed in language or art? A journey to Rwanda to complete a commission to commemorate the Rwandan genocide, and a journey to Poland. The Fire and the Bonfire reveals a close - though also difficult - father-son relationship and explores genocide through art, which leads to unexpected discoveries.

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Reviews

This is a book that needs to be read more than once. Ardyn Halter has written about an agonizingly difficult subject with a painter's eye, a novelist's sense of pace and suspense, a philosophical mind - and he has done it superbly. - Hillel Halkin ...this is powerful. Raw and incredibly sad. Your clear eye and honesty had me gasping for breath at times. - Fergal Keane A hugely eloquent, painfully honest and insightful text... A work of art to be savoured in its own right. - Monica Bohm-Duchen Halter... is removed by a generation, a survivor of a kind. Echoes of family, obscured by darkness, ghostly, opaque, struggling back to life through the lens of his struggle. Halter is man in the middle, a bridgehead between those who live and those who wanted to live, but did not survive. - Prof. Stephen Smith Halter's prose is at once forceful, pellucid, tightly wound, and confident... The book is hard to put down as it quietly crescendos, scene by scene, even though the narrative spirals inward rather than follows a linear trajectory. Halter's eye for visual detail is unfaltering... The Fire and the Bonfire may very well be the defining testament of the second generation of Holocaust survivors. - Gabriel Levin

"""This is a book that needs to be read more than once. Ardyn Halter has written about an agonizingly difficult subject with a painter's eye, a novelist's sense of pace and suspense, a philosophical mind - and he has done it superbly."" —Hillel Halkin ""...this is powerful. Raw and incredibly sad. Your clear eye and honesty had me gasping for breath at times."" —Fergal Keane ""A hugely eloquent, painfully honest and insightful text... A work of art to be savoured in its own right."" —Monica Bohm-Duchen ""Halter... is removed by a generation, a survivor of a kind. Echoes of family, obscured by darkness, ghostly, opaque, struggling back to life through the lens of his struggle. Halter is man in the middle, a bridgehead between those who live and those who wanted to live, but did not survive."" —Prof. Stephen Smith ""Halter's prose is at once forceful, pellucid, tightly wound, and confident... The book is hard to put down as it quietly crescendos, scene by scene, even though the narrative spirals inward rather than follows a linear trajectory. Halter's eye for visual detail is unfaltering... The Fire and the Bonfire may very well be the defining testament of the second generation of Holocaust survivors."" —Gabriel Levin"

Author Information

Ardyn Halter is best known for his painting, printmaking and stained-glass. His work is in numerous collections including The British Museum, The Tel Aviv Museum, The Israel Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The British Library, London, The National Library of Ireland, Dublin, The New York Public Library. He has designed and made commissioned stained glass windows for the National Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, St Johns Wood Synagogue London, Alyth Gardens and Highgate Synagogues, London, and for Cambridge University. Previous books include: The Water’s Edge Lund Humphries, London 2006; Out of the Water Sport, Diversity and Tolerance, A Portrait of Aqvatikim, Israel’s first Masters Swimming Club (English, Hebrew and Arabic). Israel 2018.

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