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One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth
by Meriel Schindler
An extraordinary memoir of a Jewish family spanning two world wars and its flight from Nazi-occupied Austria.
Meriel Schindler spent her adult life trying to keep her father, Kurt, at bay. But when he died in 2017, he left behind piles of Nazi-era documents related to her family's fate in Innsbruck, Austria, and a treasure trove of family albums reaching back to before World War I. Meriel was forced to confront not only their fractured relationship, but also the truth behind their family history.
The Lost Café Schindler re-creates the journey of an extraordinary family, whose relatives included the Jewish doctor who treated Hitler's mother when she was dying of breast cancer; the Kafka family; and Alma Schindler, the wife of Gustav Mahler. The narrative centers around the Café Schindler, the social hub of Innsbruck. Famous for its pastries, home-distilled liquors, live entertainment, and hospitality, the restaurant attracted Austrians from all walks of life. But as conditions became untenable for Jews in Austria during the Nazi era, the Schindlers were forced to leave, and their café was expropriated.
Meriel reconstructs the color and vibrancy of life in prewar Innsbruck against the majestic backdrop of the Austrian Alps, as well as the creeping menace and, finally, terror of the Nazi occupation. Ultimately, The Lost Café Schindler is a story of tragic loss―several relatives disappeared in Terezín and Auschwitz―but also one of reclamation and reconciliation. Beautifully written, it is an unforgettable portrait of an era and a testament to the pull of family history on future generations.
"In her impressively researched debut, attorney Schindler offers a sprawling, haunted narrative about a personal quest that was sparked by the passing of her father, long embittered by an 'addiction to litigation in pursuit of what, he felt, he and the family were still owed because of the disruptions of war'...Schindler writes vividly about representation, memory, and the aftermath of atrocity. A significant addition to the literature on the Holocaust." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] skillfully crafted narrative interweaving one family's story with larger events while also considering complex themes of memory, guilt, and accountability. The author's fast-paced writing reads like a novel, and she includes family recipes and photographs that add a personal touch to an already intimate story. A must-read work of narrative nonfiction that's highly recommended for readers of memoirs or 20th-century European history." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Rigorously researched, The Lost Café Schindler successfully weaves together a compelling and at times deeply moving memoir and family history that also chronicles the wider story of the Jews of the Austro-Hungarian Empire…It distinguishes itself through its combination of mystery and reconciliation." - The Times (UK)
"An extraordinary and compelling book of reckonings―a journey across a long, complex, and deeply painful arc of history, grippingly told―a wonderful melding of the personal and the political, the family and the historical." - Philippe Sands, author of East West Street and The Ratline
"Meriel Schindler takes us on a journey that spans 150 years and threads across countries and continents as she uncovers her family's history. Weaving her relatives' personal lives into the turbulent frame of European history, Schindler moves back and forth between the public and the private realms. Lovingly written and astutely observed, The Lost Café Schindler is a meditation on loss: personal loss and loss of historic significance." - Debórah Dwork, coauthor of Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933–1946
"This almost unbearably touching book traces an extraordinarily diligent and sensitive process of family rediscovery. Meriel Schindler shows us how short the window of opportunity for Central European Jews was and how lasting an imprint they nonetheless left behind." - Peter Hayes, author of Why? Explaining the Holocaust
This information about The Lost Café Schindler was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Meriel Schindler is an employment lawyer, partner, and head of a team at the law firm Withers LLP, and is a trustee of the writing charity Arvon. She lives in London with her husband, Jeremy, and has three adult children.
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