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The Rest Is Memory: A Novel

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Description

The heartbreaking story of a young Catholic girl transported to Auschwitz becomes a Rashomon-like rondo by one of our greatest novelists. Esquire • Best Books of Fall 2024 "The Rest Is Memory is a literary resurrection, as shattering as it is astonishing. Lily Tuck has done the impossible; from darkness and hideous cruelty, she has woven an unforgettable paean to hope, to life, to justice." ―Junot Diaz First glimpsed riding on the back of a boy’s motorcycle, fourteen-year-old Czeslawa comes to life in this mesmerizing novel by Lily Tuck, who imagines her upbringing in a small Polish village before her world imploded in late 1942. Stripped of her modest belongings, shorn, and tattooed number 26947 on arriving at Auschwitz, Czeslawa is then photographed. Three months later, she is dead. How did this happen to an ordinary Polish citizen? This is the question that Tuck grapples with in this haunting novel, which frames Czeslawa’s story within the epic tragedy of six million Poles who perished during the German occupation. A decade prior to writing The Rest Is Memory, Tuck read an obituary of the photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who took more than 40,000 pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners. Included were three of Czeslawa Kwoka, a Catholic girl from rural southeastern Poland. Tuck cut out the photos and kept them, determined to learn more about Czeslawa, but she was only able to glean the barest facts: the village she came from, the transport she was on, that she was accompanied by her mother and her neighbors, her tattoo number, and the date of her death. From this scant evidence, Tuck’s novel becomes a remarkable kaleidoscopic feat of imagination, something only our greatest novelists can do. “Beautifully written, all the while instilling a sense of horror” (Susanna Moore), Tuck’s language swirls about, yet not a word is out of place. The subtly rotating images tumble out at us, accelerating as we learn about Czeslawa’s tragic stay in Auschwitz, the lives of real people such as the barbaric Commandant Rudolf Höss; his unconscionable wife, Hedwig; the psychiatrist and child rescuer Janusz Korczak; and the mordant Polish short story writer Tadeusz Borowski. Although we are certain of Czeslawa’s fate, we have no choice but to keep turning the pages, thoroughly mesmerized by Tuck’s near otherworldly prose. In Lily Tuck’s hands, The Rest Is Memory becomes an unforgettable work of historical reclamation that rescues an innocent life, one previously only recalled by a stark triptych of photographs. 1 map Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Liveright


Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 10, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 128 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1324095725


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 29


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 0.6 x 8.6 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #149,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #373 in Historical World War II & Holocaust Fiction #612 in World War II Historical Fiction #4,895 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#373 in Historical World War II & Holocaust Fiction:


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Top Amazon Reviews


  • Hard to read this sad story, but...
Format: Hardcover
Difficult to read as the content is tragic, however the author is such a wonderful writer that one reads on. This book is small and the tale short. I read half of it in one sitting. Had to stop as the happenings and tragedies and cruelties inflicted on these innocent people was just too much for me to take in. Finished the book the next day. I'm glad I read it as this history should never be forgotten, but what I read and learned about Poland's ''cleansing'' by the Germans and others will stay with me for a long time. Recommend this wonderfully written, yet tragic, story. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2025 by shopper in VA

  • Never Forget
Format: Hardcover
Much like Richard Powers’ Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, which I read for the first time recently, this novel is based on the author coming across a picture which provides the inspiration. The picture is of a 14-year-old girl in the garb of a concentration camp prisoner with shorn hair and a bruised face. It is printed on the cover of my edition of the novel. It is haunting. In this brief novel, Ms. Tuck imagines the last months in the life of this girl—Czeslawa Kwoka—a Catholic girl from Poland who dies in Auschwitz. We get glimpses of her life before being sent to the camp and we see her sufferings as she struggles within the confines of the barbed wire along with her mother and a friend from her village. The text is also interspersed with lists of the dead. For those who have read a lot of Holocaust literature, there is not much new here; however, Ms. Tuck handles her characters well. This novel also provides a reminder of an important fact of the war that is often forgotten: the Nazis planned to empty out Poland and move in a German population. The Nazis transported and killed millions of Poles, the majority of them Jewish, but also millions of others, including Catholics like Czeslawa. I feel strongly that the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis needs constant remembrance. There are many great pieces of Holocaust literature. Still, a new addition is always welcome and important. This is a good one. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2025 by Timothy Haugh

  • Incredible and crushing and a great read.
Format: Kindle
I am Jewish and read a review of this amazing thin volume that perturbed me. It also induced me to purchase and read it which I did in one sitting. No loss of life should be viewed as collateral. The tragedy of this particular young girl and Poles in areas targeted by the Reich is not diminished by larger contextual concerns. Cruelty was a wholesale proposition, it turns out, and it was meted out to myriad populations in addition to the Jews it primarily targeted. A heartbreaking and exceptional read that is causing me to procure other books by this incredible author. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2024 by Jennifer Rosenberger

  • What could be more sad
Format: Hardcover
Although a truly sad story, the young teenager showed spunk and courage against insurmountable odds
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2025 by Brain Hayden

  • A Child in a world of evil
Format: Kindle
I taught over 35 years , taught history and reading, make this book part of history lesson, Ray, wow ******
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2025 by Ray Contreras

  • Heartbreaking
Format: Kindle
The style of this story, very short snippets of stories of multiple people in multiple times, adds an extra emotional touch to an already emotionally devastating topic.
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2025 by Amazon Customer

  • A Sad Touching Story
Format: Kindle
Laced with the stories and testimonies of victims and villains alike, this book tells of the last days of many during the holocaust. Startlingly accurate, by all accounts, it lays bare for the reader the hopes, plans and atrocities of whole villages which were erased from history. This is a must-read for history and WWII buffs. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2025 by S. Parker

  • (historical fiction, wwii, holocaust, novella)
Format: Audible Audiobook
The Rest is Memory by Lily Tuck***** (historical fiction, wwii, holocaust, novella) This is the fictionized account of a young Catholic girl that is imprisoned in Poland. She is transported to a concentration camp. It is startling, and well written. It follows Czeslawa as she navigates Auschwitz and immortalized in photographs by fellow prisoner Wilhelm Brasse. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2025 by Caitlin

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