A BRILLIANT LIFE
My Mother's Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust
The powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter—a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.
As Mira is nearing the end of her life, her daughter Rachelle wants to find out how her mother had lived through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March. There was a mystery to her survival, it seemed—which perhaps had something to do with the strange things that always happened around her. And, incredibly, when giving testimony later in life, she says that it was during this time—despite witnessing the depths of man’s cruelty—that she learned about “the goodness of people.”
Born in Czechoslovakia,
The powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter—a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.
As Mira is nearing the end of her life, her daughter Rachelle wants to find out how her mother had lived through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March. There was a mystery to her survival, it seemed—which perhaps had something to do with the strange things that always happened around her. And, incredibly, when giving testimony later in life, she says that it was during this time—despite witnessing the depths of man’s cruelty—that she learned about “the goodness of people.”
Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out. At 88, living in Australia, she is diagnosed with cancer, and her journalist daughter decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. What Rachelle discovers about her mother helps her fit together the jigsaw pieces of her own life. A Brilliant Life portrays not only how remote a prospect it was to live through the Holocaust, but what it is like to be the child of a survivor.
A story of love, loss, wonder and the deepest kind of faith, A Brilliant Life questions the role that fate, chance and destiny play in one’s life. It is a tribute to family, a story of incredible resilience and a chronicle of the deep connection between mother and child that not even death can destroy.
- Harper Paperbacks
- Paperback
- November 2023
- 320 Pages
- 9780063328754
Buy the Book
$19.99
About Rachelle Unreich
Rachelle Unreich has been a journalist for thirty-eight years, including seven years spent in New York and Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in publications including Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Rolling Stone, and the Sydney Morning Herald, and she has been extensively published in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Southeast Asia. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Praise
“A delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother’s love. Braiding together the past and the present, A Brilliant Life shows how the two can never be separated—how, in families especially, we are shaped by the stories we inherit.” —Jonathan Freedland, bestselling author of The Escape Artist
“Journalist Unreich makes a graceful book debut with a family history, gleaned from interviews that she conducted with her 89-year-old mother, Mira, before she died from cancer . . . . A daughter’s tender portrait of a woman who lived through terror.” —Kirkus Reviews