The Postcard

The premise of this 2023 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide selection is irresistible. In 2003, Anne Berest’s mother Lelia received a postcard, an old postcard, addressed to Berest’s grandmother, who is dead. The card is blank except for four names—Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, and Jaques. These were the names of her grandparents, aunt and uncle, all killed at Auschwitz. Anne was about to give birth so the postcard was forgotten, put away. But when Anne remembers the card nearly two decades later, she is determined to find out who sent it and why. This sweeping French novel—an award winner and bestseller in France—deals with history and memory, hope, grief, and, reader take note, trauma. Translated from the French by Tina Kover.