For readers of All Things Consoled by Elizabeth Hay and They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson.

Kiss the Red Stairs is a compelling memoir by award-winning journalist Marsha Lederman, who delves into her parents’ Holocaust stories in the wake of her own divorce, investigating how trauma migrates through generations with empathy, humour, and resilience.

Marsha was five when a simple question led to a horrifying answer. Sitting in her kitchen, she asked her mother why she didn’t have any grandparents. Her mother told her the truth: the Holocaust. Decades later, her parents dead and herself a mother to a young son, Marsha begins to wonder how much history has shaped her own life. Reeling in the wake of a divorce, she craves her parents’ help. But in their absence, she is gripped by a need to understand the trauma they suffered, and she begins her own journey into the past to tell her family’s stories of loss and resilience. A national bestseller, Kiss the Red Stairs is a compelling memoir of Holocaust survival, intergenerational trauma, divorce, and discovery that will guide readers through several lifetimes of monumental change.

GET THE BOOK

Owl’s Nest Books (Calgary) | Calgary Public Library

BE CURIOUSER

• Book review: Vancouver writer probes Holocaust’s wounds in searing, healing memoir. –The Vancouver Sun
• Holocaust trauma resonates across generations. –Winnipeg Free Press