The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

About the Book

`A gripping detective story, a stirring epic, a tale of ghosts and dark marvels, a thrilling display of scholarship, a meditation on the unfathomable mystery of good and evil, “The Lost” is as complex and rich with meaning and story as the past it seeks to illuminate. A beautiful book, beautifully written.’ Michael Chabon

`The Lost’ is the story of an odyssey in search of six ghosts. Daniel Mendelsohn grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust – an unmentionable subject that gripped the author's imagination from his earliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939, Mendelsohn embarked on a hunt for the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. That quest eventually took him to a dozen countries on three continents, including Ukraine, Poland, Israel, Australia, Sweden and Denmark – an epic journey that gradually exposed the tragic conflicts that can arise between the history we live and the stories we tell.

Deftly moving between past and present, interweaving reportage with richly evoked childhood memories of a now-lost generation of immigrant Jews, `The Lost’ transforms the story of one family into a profound meditation on our fragile hold on the past. Grippingly suspenseful and beautifully written, this literary tour de force brilliantly illuminates all that is lost, and found, in the passage of time.

About the Author :

Daniel Mendelsohn was born in Long Island and educated at the University of Virginia and at Princeton. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books as well as the New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review, and is contributing editor at Travel + Leisure. His first book, `The Elusive Embrace’, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. He teaches at Bard College.

Review :
'Daniel Mendelsohn has written a powerfully moving work of a 'lost' family past, reminiscent of the richly expansive prose works of Proust and the elusive texts of W.G. Sebald. A remarkable achievement.' Joyce Carol Oates 'Epic and personal, meditative and suspenseful, tragic and at times hilarious, "The Lost" is a wonderful book.' Jonathan Safran Foer 'From the particulars of his family, he helps each of us understand our own!an exceptional book rich in the best of what we are.' Times 'Hugely ambitious yet intensely engaging, Mendelsohn draws us more deeply into the experience of the larger catastrophe than we might have thought possible. The result is a new way of telling a story we thought we knew.' New York Times '[Mendelsohn] is a brilliant storyteller, influenced by the Greek masters he so admires, eschewing the chronological, looping forward and back, teasing the reader with hints of what the gods may have in store.' Sunday Times 'What distinguishes "The Lost" is that it is not, in the end really about the Holocaust, or at least not only![it] is something richer and rarer. "The Lost" becomes a book that is also about the meaning of memory and the act of storytelling![it] is a captivating and haunting book.' Daily Mail 'This is a beautiful, challenging and finally haunting read.' The Scotsman 'A stirring detective work in its own right, "The Lost" is set in the context of stories of the enigmatic interventions of God in human affairs, and deepened by reflections on the inescapable, incomprehensible part that chance plays in history.' J.M.Coetzee 'Especially poignant! Remarkable ! One of the book's most striking elements is the author's recounting of the book of Genesis in parallel with his own story, highlighting eternal themes of origins and family, temptation and exile, brotherly betrayal, creation and annihilation.' PW starred review 'Essentially a detective story, "The Lost" winds up describing far more than Mendelsohn's relatives: it brings to life the struggle of an entire generation." People Magazine, Critics Choice**** 'His book is also a ritual: the beautiful and urgent repetition of simple thoughts for the lost, and a recital of Kaddish for a generation whose voices, though almost gone, must never cease to echo.' Daily Telegraph