Edith Bruck tells the story of the 'Lager' with the inherent strength of
a wounded animal and in confronting the unbearable sadness of it closes
the account and does not surrender to the void...Unforgettable
testimony.--Primo Levi
With a style both warm and spare, Edith Bruck recreates the hardships of
her existence as a Jewish child in Hungary before the Holocaust, the
horrors of her time in the camps, and the protracted pain and
disorientation of her lonely return to 'normal' life after the war. Her
readers will marvel at her ability to perceive good as well as evil in
those who preyed upon her. This is a beautiful book.--Susan Zuccotti,
author of The Italians and the Holocaust
Passover, 1944. Edith Bruck's family sits in a darkened kitchen isolated
from the other villagers by the black cloth on the window, their
poverty, and their Judaism. Her mother explains that the Germans have
reached their Hungarian village--that they will soon have to endure more
than the cries of Jewstink and the deprivations that have been their lot
for months. The next morning twelve-year-old Edith is roused by shouts
of Wake up! Outside! Quickly! I give you five minutes, you animals!
In this memoir, Bruck tells the story of her imprisonment in Auschwitz,
Dachau, and Bergen-Belsen. She and her older sister endure almost
untellable horrors, and hunger so savage that the author tells of
ripping bread from another's teeth. The end of the war brings freedom
but little security. With no parents and no home, she moves from country
to country, from household to household, and from relationship to
relationship. In search of peace she and other family members immigrate
to Israel, but even there peace eludes her. Bruck avoids both
sentimentality and cynicism; she sees with clarity and passion, learns
what she needs to survive, and catalogs other lessons for future use. At
the end of Who Loves You Like This, she leaves Israel for Rome, where
she lives today. In another country and in a foreign language, she finds
the words to describe her life--without homeland, family, or native
language.
Edith Bruck has lived in Rome since 1954. She is the author of
several novels, collections of short stories, and volumes of poetry. She
writes for radio and television and has directed several films. Bruck's
works--for which she has won numerous literary prizes--have been
translated from the original Italian into Dutch, German, Swedish, and
Hungarian.
Who Loves You Like This is Bruck's first work to be translated into
English.
