{"product_id":"9781922253071","title":"The Book of Dirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘An immense work of love and anger, a book Bram Presser was born to write.’ Joan London\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e They chose not to speak and now they are gone…What’s left to fill the silence is no longer theirs. This is my story, woven from the threads of rumour and legend.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Jakub Rand flees his village for Prague, only to find himself trapped by the Nazi occupation. Deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, he is forced to sort through Jewish books for a so-called Museum of the Extinct Race. Hidden among the rare texts is a tattered prayer book, hollow inside, containing a small pile of dirt.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Back in the city, Františka Roubíčková picks over the embers of her failed marriage, despairing of her conversion to Judaism. When the Nazis summon her two eldest daughters for transport, she must sacrifice everything to save the girls from certain death.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Decades later, Bram Presser embarks on a quest to find the truth behind the stories his family built around these remarkable survivors.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e is a completely original novel about love, family secrets, and Jewish myths. And it is a heart-warming story about a grandson’s devotion to the power of storytelling and his family’s legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eBram Presser\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Melbourne in 1976. His stories have appeared in \u003ci\u003eBest Australian Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAward Winning Australian Writing\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Sleepers Almanac\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHigher Arc\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘The lyrical, impassioned and culturally rich prose of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e, and its moral force, bears echoes of such great Jewish writers as Franz Kafka (Presser inherited his grandfather’s copy of The Trial), Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Cynthia Ozick…It is a major book, and one for the times: while I was reading it, neo-Nazis in America brought fatal violence to Charlottesville, and, in Melbourne, neo-Nazis placed posters in schools calling for the killing of Jews to be legalised…\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e is a courageous work, as necessary for us to read as it was for Presser to write.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSaturday Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘A beautiful literary mind.’ \u003cb\u003eA.S. Patrić\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘Meet Bram Presser, aged five, smoking a cigarette with his grandmother in Prague. Meet Jakub Rand, one of the Jews chosen to assemble the Nazi’s Museum of the Extinct Race. Such details, like lightning flashes, illuminate this audacious work about the author’s search for the grandfather he loved but hardly knew. Working in the wake of writers like Modiano and Safran Foer, Presser brilliantly shows how fresh facts can derail old truths, how fiction can amplify memory. A smart and tender meditation on who we become when we attempt to survive survival.’ \u003cb\u003eMireille Juchau\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e is a grandson’s tender act of devotion, the product of a quest to rescue family voices from the silence, to bear witness, drawing on legend, journey and history, and shaped by extraordinary storytelling.’ \u003cb\u003eArnold Zable\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘A remarkable tale of Holocaust survival, love and genealogical sleuthing…A beautiful tale that will stay with the reader long after the book’s end.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks\u003c\/i\u003e+\u003ci\u003ePublishing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘It’s hard not to be captured from the opening epigraph…[A] magnificent ode to all that is lost.’ \u003cb\u003eLongin to Be\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘It is difficult to convey the breadth and nuance of this extraordinary work. It is a book about how history is made—and about who is allowed the privilege to remake it. There are echoes here of Sebald’s biting honesty and Chabon’s long and rewarding vignettes. An absolute pleasure to read.’ \u003cb\u003eReadings\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘As in Sebald’s prose narratives, Presser’s novel inhabits and the dynamic region between fiction and non-fiction.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘An impressive and captivating story of remembrance, a journey into the past for the sake of deciphering our present.’ \u003cb\u003eDasa Drndic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘In \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e the fractured lines of memory create a gripping story of survival and love.’ \u003cb\u003eLeah Kaminsky \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘I found Bram Presser’s \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e impossible to forget. Penetrating, soulful, and surprisingly welcoming, it reminded me of my own ancestors and how easy it is to sidestep the past.’ \u003cb\u003eBarry Scott, \u003ci\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, 2017 Publisher Picks\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘Presser blurs the boundaries of fact and fiction in a compelling way…A wonderful and original book, told in rich, lyrically beautiful prose that is laden with history and cultural meaning.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGood Reading\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘A combination of homage, mystery, family history and a sepia-toned love story…\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Dirt\u003c\/i\u003e is magnificent.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eANZ LitLovers\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘A heartfelt and original attempt to bridge the ever-growing gaps between history, memory and silence…Its heart beats so earnestly, and so loud…What Presser has produced is a meditation on the ethics of storytelling, of the duties we owe to the people whose stories we tell, and to the people whose stories we don’t.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAustralian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e ‘Always surprising and beautifully complex, and both deft and sensitive in its handling of its intertwined narratives and materials. It is an incredibly affecting book, one that lingers long after reading—and a remarkably assured debut.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAge\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Text Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47154091950320,"sku":"9781922253071","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781922253071_p0.jpg?v=1763632974","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781922253071","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}