Anne Berest

Anne Berest is the bestselling co-author of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are and the writer of Sagan, Paris, 1954, 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. Berest 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.

Instagram: @anneberest

FESTIVAL BOOK

The Postcard

Full of suspense and emotion, The Postcard is a quest for origins that plunges us deep into the darkest hours of European history. A deeply moving book.” – Leila Slimani

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 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.

GET THE BOOK

Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library | Audible

BE CURIOUSER

Podcast: Anne Berest on diving into her history for The Postcard – The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
Radio: Anne Berest’s novel traces her family history and leads back to the Holocaust – NPR
The Anonymous Postcard That Inspired a French Best-Seller – The New Yorker
An Autobiographical Novel Reclaims a Jewish History in Occupied France – The New York Times
An eerie piece of mail leads to a family mystery – The Washington Post