Losing the Dead

As her mother slipped into the darkness of old age, Lisa Appignanesi began to realise how little she knew of the reality behind the tales she had heard since childhood. She had shunned her parents' stories of war-time Poland, but now she set out to find the truth. In her quest she flew to Warsaw - imagining and revisiting a past she never knew.

This is the moving story of the Jews who survived outside the camps, but it is also the author's own voyage of self-discovery - a family memoir of the rites of passage of emigration, childhood, and growing up an outsider in a closed community

“"This book crosses genre, combining profound story telling and hard history. It is wonderful and heartbreaking in equal measure, and it remains an astonishing work."”

Distinguished . . . Appignanesi has a sharp eye for the details of everyday life in the Warsaw ghetto . . . Read Losing the Dead and you begin to appreciate what life must have been like for hundreds of thousands of European Jews during the long nightmare of the Third Reich - The Times

This book crosses genre, combining profound story telling and hard history. It is wonderful and heartbreaking in equal measure, and it remains an astonishing work - Edmund de Waal, author of THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES

Lisa Appignanesi was born in Poland and grew up in France and Canada. A novelist and writer, she is former deputy director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, former President of English PEN and current chair of the Freud Museum. In 2013 Lisa Appignanesi was awarded the OBE.

As her mother slipped into the darkness of old age, Lisa Appignanesi began to realise how little she knew of the reality behind the tales she had heard since childhood. She had shunned her parents' stories of war-time Poland, but now she set out to find the truth. In her quest she flew to Warsaw - imagining and revisiting a past she never knew. This is the moving, untold story of the Jews who survived outside the camps, but it is also the author's own voyage of self-discovery - a family memoir of the rites of passage of emigration, childhood, and growing up an outsider in a closed community. 'A compassionate and intelligent memoir . . . This dramatic story, written with a generosity of spirit and gorgous flashes of wit, is a voyage of discovery both for the restless dead and Appignanesi's own brave spirit' The Times 'Remarkable . . . beautifully told and permeated with the wisdom of those who survive against all odds' Financial Times 'Vivid, beautifully written . . . This is the work of remembering in its truest, and fullest, sense' Eva Hoffman

As her mother slipped into the darkness of old age, Lisa Appignanesi began to realise how little she knew of the reality behind the tales she had heard since childhood. She had shunned her parents' stories of war-time Poland, but now she set out to find the truth. In her quest she flew to Warsaw - imagining and revisiting a past she never knew.This is the moving story of the Jews who survived outside the camps, but it is also the author's own voyage of self-discovery - a family memoir of the rites of passage of emigration, childhood, and growing up an outsider in a closed community

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