Writing the Book of Esther

Book excerpt: Mathieu, the narrator of this novel, is compelled by his older sister's suicide to confront the effects of his family's tragic past. Born after the war, Mathieu is left to grapple with recovering his sister's memories-which he had resolutely tried to deny-and with it the meaning of his own identity, family origins, and historical predicament. As neither victim, survivor, nor witness, does he have the right to give voice to the unimaginable? Or is he a voyeur and imposter, usurping the lives of the real victims? Placing in bold relief the hidden thoughts and struggles of the generation that has inherited the anger, sadness, guilt, and fear-but not the actual memory-of the Nazi genocide, Henri Raczymow gives an authentic and powerful voice to its grim legacy in our time.