Overview

"Soon to be featured in the Ken Burns documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust, premiering on PBS September 18th A New York Times Notable Book - Winner of the National Jewish Book Award - Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award - A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist ""A gripping detective story, a stirring epic, a tale of ghosts and dark marvels, a thrilling display of scholarship, a meditation on the unfathomable mystery of good and evil, a testimony to the enduring power of the ancient archetypes that haunt one Jewish family and the greater human family, The Lost is as complex and rich with meaning and story as the past it seeks to illuminate. A beautiful book, beautifully written.""--Michael Chabon In this rich and riveting narrative, a writer's search for the truth behind his family's tragic past in World War II becomes a remarkably original epic--part memoir, part reportage, part mystery, and part scholarly detective work--that brilliantly explores the nature of time and memory, family and history. The Lost begins as the story of a boy who grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust--an unmentionable subject that gripped his imagination from earliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939 and tantalized by fragmentary tales of a terrible betrayal, Daniel Mendelsohn sets out to find the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. That quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents and forces him to confront the wrenching discrepancies between the histories we live and the stories we tell. And it leads him, finally, back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began, and where the solution to a decades-old mystery awaits him. Deftly moving between past and present, interweaving a world-wandering odyssey with childhood memories of a now-lost generation of immigrant Jews and provocative ruminations on biblical texts and Jewish history, The Lost transforms the story of one family into a profound, morally searching meditation on our fragile hold on the past. Deeply personal, grippingly suspenseful, and beautifully written, this literary tour de force illuminates all that is lost, and found, in the passage of time."

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9780063251328

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Reviews

Daniel Mendelsohn has written a powerfully moving work of a lost family past. . . . A remarkable achievement. --Joyce Carol Oates A beautiful book, beautifully written. --Michael Chabon A grand book, an ambitious undertaking fully realized. --The Forward A magnificent and deeply wise book. . . . Mesmerizing. . . . Mendelsohn's accomplishment is enormous. --The Los Angeles Times Book Review A remarkable personal narrative -- rigorous in its search for truth, at once tender and exacting. It is deeply moving, often distressing, sometimes funny. . . . Mendelsohn succeeds in assembling an immensely human tableau in which each witness has a face and each face a story and destiny. --Elie Wiesel, The Washington Post Book World (front cover) A stunning achievement. . . . Extraordinary. --Rebecca Goldstein, The New York Observer Extraordinary. . . . Mr. Mendelsohn, an evocative, ruminative writer, brings to life the vanished world not just of prewar Poland but also of his childhood and his extended family. --William Grimes, The New York Times Hugely ambitious yet intensely engaging. . . . Absorbing, novelistic. . . . Thought-provoking and original. --Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Times Book Review (front cover) Riveting. . . . Recalls the recent work of Jonathan Franzen or early Joan Didion. . . . A brilliant, steely-eyed personal history. --Newsday Stunning. . . . A singular achievement, a work of major significance and pummeling impact. --Samuel G. Freedman, The Chicago Tribune The Lost is the most gripping, the most amazing true story I have read in years. . . . Enthralling. . . . An immensely moving and beautifully written book. --Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books The Lost is a sensitively written book that constantly asks itself the most difficult questions about history and memory. --BookForum A gripping detective story, a stirring epic, a tale of ghosts and dark marvels, a thrilling display of scholarship, a meditation on the unfathomable mystery of good and evil, a testimony to the enduring power of the ancient archetypes that haunt one Jewish family and the greater human family, The Lost is as complex and rich with meaning and story as the past it seeks to illuminate. A beautiful book, beautifully written. --Michael Chabon A masterpiece. . . . Daniel Mendelsohn is an astonishing writer. . . . This book for better or worse makes the Holocaust new again. --The Jerusalem Post A stirring detective work, The Lost is ... deepened by reflections on the inescapable part that chance plays in history. --J. M. Coetzee A stunning memoir. . . . Beautiful and powerfully moving. . . . As suspenseful as a detective thriller, and as difficult to put down. . . . . What makes The Lost so extraordinary is how loving it is. --Francine Prose, O, The Oprah Magazine An excellent memoir. . . . Essentially a detective story, The Lost winds up describing far more than Mendelsohn's relatives: It brings to life the struggle of an entire generation. --People (four stars) Epic and personal, meditative and suspenseful, tragic and at times hilarious, The Lost is a wonderful book. --Jonathan Safran Foer Mendelsohn, a classicist, creates a stunning Odyssey here, an epic world-wandering. --Garry Wills Moving. . . . Proves that there are limitless ways of looking at that most inexplicable of human moments. --Entertainment Weekly

A beautiful book, beautifully written. --Michael Connelly A magnificent and deeply wise book. . . . Mesmerizing. . . . Mendelsohn's accomplishment is enormous. --Los Angeles Times Book Review A remarkable personal narrative -- rigorous in its search for truth, at once tender and exacting. It is deeply moving, often distressing, sometimes funny. . . . Mendelsohn succeeds in assembling an immensely human tableau in which each witness has a face and each face a story and destiny. --Elie Wiesel, Washington Post Book World (front cover) Stunning. . . . A singular achievement, a work of major significance and pummeling impact. --Samuel G. Freedman, Chicago Tribune A grand book, an ambitious undertaking fully realized. --The Forward The Lost is a sensitively written book that constantly asks itself the most difficult questions about history and memory. --BookForum A stunning memoir. . . . Beautiful and powerfully moving. . . . As suspenseful as a detective thriller, and as difficult to put down. . . . . What makes The Lost so extraordinary is how loving it is. --Air Safety Week Daniel Mendelsohn has written a powerfully moving work of memoirist appropriation of a lost family past in tones reminiscent of the richly expansive prose works of Proust and the elusive texts of W.G. Sebald--a remarkable achievement. --Joyce Carol Oates The Lost is the most gripping, the most amazing true story I have read in years. . . . Enthralling. . . . An immensely moving and beautifully written book. --Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books Epic and personal, meditative and suspenseful, tragic and at times hilarious, The Lost is a wonderful book. --Jonathan Safran Foer

Daniel Mendelsohn has written a powerfully moving work of a lost family past. . . . A remarkable achievement. --Joyce Carol Oates A beautiful book, beautifully written. --Michael Chabon A grand book, an ambitious undertaking fully realized. --The Forward A magnificent and deeply wise book. . . . Mesmerizing. . . . Mendelsohn's accomplishment is enormous. --The Los Angeles Times Book Review A remarkable personal narrative -- rigorous in its search for truth, at once tender and exacting. It is deeply moving, often distressing, sometimes funny. . . . Mendelsohn succeeds in assembling an immensely human tableau in which each witness has a face and each face a story and destiny. --Elie Wiesel, The Washington Post Book World (front cover) The Lost is the most gripping, the most amazing true story I have read in years. . . . Enthralling. . . . An immensely moving and beautifully written book. --Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books The Lost is a sensitively written book that constantly asks itself the most difficult questions about history and memory. --BookForum A stunning memoir. . . . Beautiful and powerfully moving. . . . As suspenseful as a detective thriller, and as difficult to put down. . . . . What makes The Lost so extraordinary is how loving it is. --Francine Prose, O, The Oprah Magazine Epic and personal, meditative and suspenseful, tragic and at times hilarious, The Lost is a wonderful book. --Jonathan Safran Foer

Author Information

Daniel Mendelsohn a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, is the author of the international bestseller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. He teaches at Bard College.

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