As a child, acclaimed writer Daniel Mendelsohn bore such a resemblance to his long-lost great-uncle Shmiel that relatives would cry at the sight of him. Yet the fate of Shmiel and his family in World War II remained a long-taboo topic.
When Daniel stumbles across a cache of desperate letters written by Shmiel in 1939 hinting at a horrible betrayal, he is moved to investigate what became of his relatives. A five-year quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents, and 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.
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.
Description:
As a child, acclaimed writer Daniel Mendelsohn bore such a resemblance to his long-lost great-uncle Shmiel that relatives would cry at the sight of him. Yet the fate of Shmiel and his family in World War II remained a long-taboo topic.
When Daniel stumbles across a cache of desperate letters written by Shmiel in 1939 hinting at a horrible betrayal, he is moved to investigate what became of his relatives. A five-year quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents, and 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.
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.