Guetter L’aurore / Waiting For The Dawn

Information

Author:

Julie Printzac

Date:

Les Escales
March 2022

Author:

Additional Info

WAITING FOR THE DAWN

Rights holder: Les Escales
Original Language: French

Based on a true story, a harrowing novel that portrays what life was like for Jewish families living in the supposedly Free Zone of France during World War II…

Summer 1941. The Brodsky’s, a Jewish family, has fled the occupied zone and Nazi threat to take refuge in southern France. However, the new, brutal laws of Vichy France catch up with them where they have settled, in the town of Saint-Girons at the foot of the Pyrénées. Little by little the three generations of the family organize their lives as best as possible.

Esther, the oldest of the children, meets Clara at school. Like for most teens, it’s a time in their lives filled with great emotions, first loves and powerful friendships. It’s also a time for the Resistance, the fight for survival and also the roundups. In this time of great upheaval, Esther and Clara will do everything they can to remain masters of their fate. But the brutality of history may have something to say about that as well.

Decades later, while Esther suffers from senility and her granddaughter Deborah visits with her, she yells out the name “Clara”. When Deborah questions her about this, having never heard of a Clara, she remains silent. Deborah decides to piece together her family’s history which for so long has been kept secret. To do this there’s only one place to go. Saint-Girons.

Julie Printzac, an editor and translator, lives in Paris. She is the author of La Solitude des femmes qui courent (JC Lattès, 2017 ; Le Livre de Poche, 2018).

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