The Postcard

By: Anne Berest, Tina Kover - translator

Narrated by: Barrie Kealoha

Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling.

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 Anne 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 that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.

©2023 Anne Berest and Tina Kover (P)2023 Europa Editions

Critic reviews

AN INSTANT NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER

Named a Most Anticipated Book by the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Bustle, Book Riot, Vogue

Named a May ABA Indie Next Pick

Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, the Prix Renaudot des lycéens, and the ELLE Readers Prize

“Powerful, meticulously imagined... The Postcard (translated into a lucid and precise English by Tina Kover) takes its readers on a deep dive into one Jewish family’s history, and, inextricably, into the devastating history of the Holocaust in France... [A] powerful literary work... that contains a single grand-scale act of self-discovery and many moments of historical illumination.”—Julie Orringer, The New York Times Book Review

“Moving…Ms. Berest has done her research, artfully weaving grim facts and figures into her family history…Let’s hope that a book like this, which encompasses both the monstrosities of the past and the dangers of the present, will guard us from complacency.”—Heller McAlpin, The Wall Street Journal

“In what feels like a literary magic trick, Berest transforms her own family’s complex and heartbreaking Holocaust history into a novel that masterfully blends elements of drama, mystery and philosophy. It’s propulsive yet deep—an intimate, exacting contemplation of loss that somehow ends in love.”—Kate Tuttle, People Magazine

The storytelling was incredible!

This book is a must read!! The things she went through to learn more about her family are incredible. I could not stop listening. So good.

Devastating

Loved the combination of history, interesting characters, personal stories, and the mystery of the postcard. The plot and braiding of the stories made it very suspenseful.

Just ok for me

Longer than it needed to be. Good premise. Wanted to love it but couldn’t get there.

An Achingly Beautiful and Painful Explanation of Loss and Memory

This book is included in Anne Boggle’s 2023 Summer Reading Guide. It’s the first I’ve finished. This absorbing story of family, love, loss alienation, and the fragments that are passed down is beautiful. It’s a reckoning. This book needs to be read today.

Moving and informative

Written in the form of an unfolding investigation into the source of a postcard, this story of one family’s odyssey, is the tragic narrative of a family’s troubled relationship to its Jewishness while also serving as a stand-in for Europe’s troubled relationship to its Jews. Except for a few jarring pronunciations of the Hebrew, the narrator does a lovely job in conveying the characters. I found the story moving, enlightening, and very worthwhile.

Wow.

I stopped reading this near the beginning. And I began reading reviews! Push through. And I am so glad i did. This book is amazing. I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time

Incredible

This book is beautifully written and absolutely haunting. The performance was perfect and I enjoyed this so much.

A truly memorable book!

An extraordinary book, narrated so well! I have read holocaust literature form many years but the French aspect gave me a new experience, so honest and revealing. Many thanks to this author

A family saga during the most evil time in history

Anne Berest writes beautifully of her family. I am grateful for her mother's research which gave us much of the story. I wish there was more to hear.

Not a fan of the audiobook narrator’s voice

I find Kealoha’s voice glib and grating, a particularly bad fit for a story, based in fact, about the Shoah.