Join Solid State Books and author Anne Berest in discussion with Michael Reynolds of Europa Press & Sarah Diligenti of the Alliance Francaise. Please register here.
Anne Berest’s The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. Luminous and gripping to the very last page, it is an enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life.
January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.
Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.
About the author:
Anne Berest is the bestselling co-author of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are (Doubleday, 2014) and the author of a novel based on the life of French writer Françoise Sagan. With her sister Claire, she is also the author of Gabriële, a critically acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp's lover and muse. She is the great-granddaughter of the painter Francis Picabia. For her work as a writer and prize-winning showrunner, she has been profiled in publications such as French Vogue and Haaretz newspaper. The recipient of numerous literary awards, The Postcard was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize and has been a long-selling bestseller in France.
About the moderators:
Recipient of the 2016 Golden Colophon Award for Superlative Achievement & Leadership in Independent Literary Publishing, and a 2017 Epiphany Magazine Honoree for Publishing Excellence, Michael Reynolds is the Editor in Chief of Europa Editions. He serves on the steering committee of the Independent Publisher Caucus and is the founder of Books Across Borders.
Sarah Diligenti has been the Executive Director of the Alliance Française since 2013.
She is also a poet, speechwriter, and is at work on her first novel. She was named a
Young Poet Laureate of the Académie des Jeux Floraux, contributed to the
anthology, L’amour à cent mains (2017), and is a Founding Director of Word Fest, the
Annual DC International Poetry Festival. In 2017, she was made a Knight in the Order of the
Academic Palms, the oldest non-military distinction of the French Republic it recognizes those
who have rendered eminent service to French education and have contributed actively to the
prestige of French culture.
