The Manuscript

by Eva Zeller

In the attic of the house she has inherited from her grandparents, Bea finds a sealed envelope containing a manuscript written by a woman who, along with Bea's mother, was captured by the Russians in February 1945 and deported to a labor camp in Siberia. Bea starts to read it and at last, fifty years later, comes to know the circumstances leading up to her mother's death. She then meets Jacob Stern, a Berlin Jew who was the only member of his family to survive the war. Bea and Jacob's is a love story, though neither can find the language to break the silence and talk about the fate of their parents. Only during a trip to Russia do they at last find the words.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mary]

Based on true events, a German woman in Berlin longs to tell the story of her mother, who died in a Siberian work camp, and finally does so to a German Jew, who was hidden during the war in the city and who lost both parents himself. I found Jacob's story, when he finally was able to tell it, very compelling. The manuscript, all that the woman knows of her mother's death, written by a fellow prisoner who survived, is included in bits and pieces repeatedly in the novel, along with bits of the many letters sent by the woman's father to his beloved wife. A reminder of the many human losses wars leave in their wake.