A Brilliant Life: An Unforgettable Memoir of Love, Loss and the Ability of the Heart to Heal by Rachelle Unreich - #bookreview

 

My mother has always told her stories perfectly. When her grandchildren were little, they would long to stay overnight at her house - in part for the nightly ritual of hot chocolate and the heavy European bedding that wrapped them up in a buddle of goose down until they succumbed to sleep, but mostly for the magical way she could tell a story...

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A 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.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out and 17 when the Nazis finally caught up with her. Torn apart from her family, she went on to survive four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March when she was too weak to walk. She lived when almost everyone she knew did not.

At 88, living in Australia, Mira is diagnosed with cancer and her daughter, a journalist, decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. As Mira gives her testimony Rachelle comes to understand how Mira's unique perspective - seeing her experiences through the lens of the goodness of the people who helped her - protected her from the depths of humanity's cruelty, and enabled her to go on to live a full and brilliant life.

Rachelle also fits together the jigsaw pieces of her own life as a child of a survivor. She comes to understand that however different their lives have been, she and her mother are uniquely united by a fierce inner strength to live, and a mystery of strange things that always seem to happen around them.

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

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When I sit down to write a review of a book, I try to compare it to similar books that I have read in the same genre. However, that method never works when it comes to reviewing Holocaust memoirs. How can I possibly compare them? I have no right to judge the experience of one over another. So, I tend to give all Holocaust memoirs five stars for this reason because I admire the bravery and courage it has taken a survivor to tell of their extreme trauma. 

However, as the number of them lessen, the mantle is taken up by second generation Holocaust survivors. In A Brilliant Life, Rachelle Unreich tells the story of her mother, Mira, and she does so with skill, love and admiration of a mother who gifted her daughter with love and understanding.

Ms. Unrecich, a journalist, conveys us from the point of Mira's birth in Czechoslovakia through to the time of her death in Australia. She interviewed her mother towards the end of Mira's life, utilizing the skills of her profession, and this book is the result. She writes extremely well and factually. 

I have read many Holocaust memoirs over the years, and even though we are decades on, they still have the power to shock. The author details the experiences of Mira's time in the concentration camps, the murders of her family at the hands of the Nazis, and yet still she was capable of seeing the goodness in people.

It is impossible to read this book without feeling emotional. The author has the skill to transport the reader to a time and place in history that we should all be grateful we did not have the misfortune to live through. She writes with compassion and eloquence and has produced an excellent account of the life of her mother.

Mira's legacy was happiness and gratitude. Throughout the devastating losses and suffering, she chose happiness. While surrounded by the most despicable of human behaviours, Mira still chose to see the best in people. What a brave and admiral woman and I applaud the author for telling us Mira's story. What an extraordinary woman she was and this is an equally remarkable book. I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 1785306525

Publisher:  Black and White Publishing

Formats:  audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  336 (hardback)

About the Author:

Rachelle Unreich started her journalism career when she was completing her Arts/ Law degrees at Monash University. In addition to studying writing at UCLA, she has lived in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney and Melbourne. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, and has had regular columns in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Herald Sun and Elle magazine. Her work has appeared extensively in Australia, US, UK and South-East Asia. She currently lives in Melbourne.

(ARC courtesy of Net Galley)

(author media courtesy of Curtis Brown)

(all opinions are my own)