The Postcard Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Crossing the Pyrenees and our BookBrowse Review of The Postcard.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. French authors popularized what is known in the United States as autofiction, authors such as Amélie Nothomb, Emmanuel Carrère, Annie Ernaux, and now Anne Berest. The Postcard is largely true, yet it is still classified as a novel. Where do you think fact and family history end, and fiction begins in this book? How is it different from what readers typically expect from a memoir?
2. Book 1 of The Postcard focuses largely on the lives of the Rabinovitch family before internment. As readers, we know what is coming, but Berest allows us to build relationships with these characters before tragedy strikes. How did thinking of these characters not just victims of unspeakable tragedy but as individuals who love, create art, write, and learn ask you to reflect on your own Holocaust education or how people who share a similar fate as that of the Rabinovitches are often portrayed on screen and in books?
3. "On this particular night, all the young people her own age were on their way to the dance…The car's headlights lit up their legs and torsos, but not their faces" (pg. 139). In Book 1, and throughout the novel, Berest describes moments like this, moments that depict opportunities and experiences denied Jewish people during this time. Which descriptions of this kind stood out to you the most? How does evocative detail, description, and memorable images allow you feel more fully the betrayal and fear that her family experienced?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Europa Editions. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.