Catalog

Record Details

Catalog Search



Maybe Esther : a family story / Katja Petrowskaja ; translated from the German by Shelley Frisch.

Petrowskaja, Katja, 1970- (author.).
Book Book (2018.)
Description: viii, 254 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.
3 of 3 copies available at NOBLE (All Libraries).
1 of 1 copy available at Winthrop. (Show preferred library)
0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Library Location Call Number Status Due Date
Winthrop Adult Biographies 920 920 Petrowskaja 2018 (Text to Phone) Available -
Beverly Main NEW PT 2716 .E76 V5413 2018 (Text to Phone) Available -
Stoneham Adult Nonfiction Lower Level 920 PET (Text to Phone) Available -
  • ISBN: 9780062337542
  • ISBN: 0062337548
  • Edition: First U.S. edition.
Contents: An exemplary story -- Rosa and the mute children -- My beautiful Poland -- In the world of unstructured matter -- Babi Yar -- Dedushka.
Summary: Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents. Her idea blossomed into this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning within the stories of her ancestors. In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends, introducing a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went underground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, forever splitting their branch of the family from the rest; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for deaf-mute Jewish children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later—and settled back into the family as if he’d never been gone; and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis... Petrowskaja visits the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity. -- from front book jacket.
Authors: Frisch, Shelley Laura, (translator.).
Citation: Petrowskaja, Katja. "Maybe Esther : a family story." New York, N.Y. : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.
Link: https://winthrop.noblenet.org/eg/opac/record/4114525?locg=1

Additional Resources