Cover photo © Roman Vishniac, 1937
EAST OF TIME
East of Time is a rendezvous of history
and imagination, of realities and dreams, hopes and disenchantments. This
extraordinary book, by turns stark and poetic, unfolds in a succession
of short reminiscences that weave together into a shimmering tapestry
depicting a lost world.
The setting is Lodz, Poland, in the years of the author’s childhood,
when he witnessed the grand belief in a just new world overtaken by the
cataclysmic events of the 1930s, imprisoned between the walls of ghettos,
and finally silenced at Auschwitz. The book’s touchstone is the determination
of an entire community to remain human, even at the last frontier of life.
“East of Time is the most ruthlessly
honest book about the nature of humankind that I have ever read… Reading
it has changed my life. How, after reading this book, can I ever again
look into my heart and not weep?”
Alex Miller
READ Angela Bennie's article
Reverie from the heart of horror wins biography award