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A Brilliant Life

My Mother's Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks

The powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter—a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.

As Mira is nearing the end of her life, her daughter Rachelle wants to find out how her mother had lived through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March. There was a mystery to her survival, it seemed—which perhaps had something to do with the strange things that always happened around her. And, incredibly, when giving testimony later in life, she says that it was during this time—despite witnessing the depths of man's cruelty—that she learned about "the goodness of people."

Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out. At 88, living in Australia, she is diagnosed with cancer, and her journalist daughter decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. What Rachelle discovers about her mother helps her fit together the jigsaw pieces of her own life. A Brilliant Life portrays not only how remote a prospect it was to live through the Holocaust, but what it is like to be the child of a survivor.

A story of love, loss, wonder and the deepest kind of faith, A Brilliant Life questions the role that fate, chance and destiny play in one's life. It is a tribute to family, a story of incredible resilience and a chronicle of the deep connection between mother and child that not even death can destroy.

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    • Books+Publishing

      September 19, 2023
      A Holocaust story is never an easy read, but A Brilliant Life has such a harrowing prologue that it throws the reader right into the thick of it, so be prepared. Stories of ageing and dying parents can be tearful at times, too, but there’s hope and beauty in this ‘brilliant’ biography. Journalist Rachelle Unreich has vividly captured her mother Mira’s bright spirit, both through her accounts of Mira's earlier life and through the modern-day first-person moments interspersed throughout the book. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1927, Mira was 17 when she was taken to the first of four concentration camps, surviving each one thanks to people who, in her words, ‘helped me without getting benefit from it themselves’. Unflinching information is included about Mira’s experiences in Plaszow, Birkenau, Auschwitz, and on the arduous death march to Ravensbrück in Germany, when even her inimitable spirit seems about to break. Well researched but never dry, the book shines when describing Mira’s family and her capacity to see light through horrific darkness and notice the moments of serendipity. After a long and captivating life, Mira is living with terminal cancer in her home in Melbourne in 2016, and her daughter interviews her while she still has time. We are brought into the family fold and invited to join them in Mira’s final days, enjoying the richness of the storytelling the way we might at a Shabbat meal.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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