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leeannereads's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
zwyrdish's review against another edition
3.0
It was very interesting to read this book a few months after reading Prague Winter (by Madeleine Albright), where some of the same ground was covered (no pun intended). I find the stories horrifying - to bear witness, in some sense, to how quickly humans can be reduced to moral depravity and cruelty in their treatment of other humans - who were so recently just ordinary men, women, and children - simply by demonizing them with fear-inspiring propaganda and stoking their righteous indignation. It has quite a familiar ring to it, sadly.
If anything positive can be gleaned from such horrors, it is the care that many of the persecuted gave to one another, and the resilience they displayed in the face of unspeakable physical violence, humiliation, and starvation.
I had a little trouble following the storyline, but the research was clearly extensive.
If anything positive can be gleaned from such horrors, it is the care that many of the persecuted gave to one another, and the resilience they displayed in the face of unspeakable physical violence, humiliation, and starvation.
I had a little trouble following the storyline, but the research was clearly extensive.
billybear72's review against another edition
5.0
A moving and visceral tome of joy and sadness, of losing and finding and surviving.
textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of The Book of Dirt
‘The Book of Dirt is both a loving, honest portrayal of lives that would have been erased, and an incorporation of the broader lessons of their experience into contemporary mythology. It keeps the discussion about trauma, memory, and intergenerational acts of transfer alive for those generations that follow, that risk forgetting. It is a potent achievement for a debut novel.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘A gripping tale of survival and an absorbing novelisation of his family’s extraordinary lives…Presser fills in the gaps in his grandfather’s story with vivid character studies; together with poignant black and white snapshots, he brings them evocatively to life. His poetic narrative is a perfect foil for the silences of his forbears.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
‘I found Bram Presser’s The Book of Dirt impossible to forget. Penetrating, soulful, and surprisingly welcoming, it reminded me of my own ancestors and how easy it is to sidestep the past.’
Barry Scott, Australian Book Review, 2017 Publisher Picks
‘A beautiful literary mind.’
A.S. Patrić
‘An impressive and captivating story of remembrance, a journey into the past for the sake of deciphering our present.’
Dasa Drndic
‘In The Book of Dirt the fractured lines of memory create a gripping story of survival and love.’
Leah Kaminsky
‘An immense work of love and anger, a book Bram Presser was born to write.’
Joan London
‘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.’
Mireille Juchau
‘The Book of Dirt 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.’
Arnold Zable
‘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.’
Books & Publishing
‘It’s hard not to be captured from the opening epigraph…[A] magnificent ode to all that is lost.’
Longin to Be
‘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.’
Readings
‘The lyrical, impassioned and culturally rich prose of The Book of Dirt, 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…The Book of Dirt is a courageous work, as necessary for us to read as it was for Presser to write.’
Saturday Paper
‘As in Sebald’s prose narratives, Presser’s novel inhabits and the dynamic region between fiction and non-fiction.’
Australian Book Review
‘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.’
Good Reading
‘A combination of homage, mystery, family history and a sepia-toned love story…The Book of Dirt is magnificent.’
ANZ LitLovers
‘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.’
Australian
‘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.’
Age
‘The Book of Dirt is both a loving, honest portrayal of lives that would have been erased, and an incorporation of the broader lessons of their experience into contemporary mythology. It keeps the discussion about trauma, memory, and intergenerational acts of transfer alive for those generations that follow, that risk forgetting. It is a potent achievement for a debut novel.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘A gripping tale of survival and an absorbing novelisation of his family’s extraordinary lives…Presser fills in the gaps in his grandfather’s story with vivid character studies; together with poignant black and white snapshots, he brings them evocatively to life. His poetic narrative is a perfect foil for the silences of his forbears.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
‘I found Bram Presser’s The Book of Dirt impossible to forget. Penetrating, soulful, and surprisingly welcoming, it reminded me of my own ancestors and how easy it is to sidestep the past.’
Barry Scott, Australian Book Review, 2017 Publisher Picks
‘A beautiful literary mind.’
A.S. Patrić
‘An impressive and captivating story of remembrance, a journey into the past for the sake of deciphering our present.’
Dasa Drndic
‘In The Book of Dirt the fractured lines of memory create a gripping story of survival and love.’
Leah Kaminsky
‘An immense work of love and anger, a book Bram Presser was born to write.’
Joan London
‘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.’
Mireille Juchau
‘The Book of Dirt 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.’
Arnold Zable
‘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.’
Books & Publishing
‘It’s hard not to be captured from the opening epigraph…[A] magnificent ode to all that is lost.’
Longin to Be
‘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.’
Readings
‘The lyrical, impassioned and culturally rich prose of The Book of Dirt, 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…The Book of Dirt is a courageous work, as necessary for us to read as it was for Presser to write.’
Saturday Paper
‘As in Sebald’s prose narratives, Presser’s novel inhabits and the dynamic region between fiction and non-fiction.’
Australian Book Review
‘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.’
Good Reading
‘A combination of homage, mystery, family history and a sepia-toned love story…The Book of Dirt is magnificent.’
ANZ LitLovers
‘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.’
Australian
‘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.’
Age
callummac's review against another edition
5.0
The Book of Dirt is an immense work - moving, powerful and deeply personal. Congratulations to Bram Presser in achieving this wonderful novel - it will be remembered by many.
lightfoxing's review against another edition
5.0
Bram Presser's The Book of Dirt is part memoir, part novel, part genealogical archeology. He scrapes away at the layers of myth and legend to come to terms with, and reveal, the time spent in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz-Birkenau by his grandfather and grandmother, Jakub Rand and Daša Roubíčková. It is a moving work, layered, piecing together family story with Jewish myth and legend. I am hard-pressed to say more about the work, because I feel, as an archivist and librarian privileged to work within the Jewish community, that it is a work so important that a simple review does not to it credit. The mixture of archival research, family material, and fictionalized storytelling is compelling, and a little intoxicating - Presser breathes life into history all while pointing at its abilities to fail us, and at our abilities to fail it. We lose history easily, let it fall to pieces within the span of a generation, and leave those who follow us to piece together stories that might have otherwise been passed along mostly intact had we had the courage to ask. The story of Jakub and Daša is remarkable, a compelling must-read for everybody.
jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review against another edition
5.0
The Book of Dirt is a work of historical fiction, but based on the true story of Presser’s own grandparents and his search to find out what happened to them. His note at the end of the novel explains the factual basis, namely an article that was published about his grandfather, and then the improvisations he made based on research and correspondence he located.
I was thoroughly captivated by this novel - Presser writes so eloquently and immediately anchors the reader within the narrative. While a novel and work of fiction, it read like investigative journalism in parts. The non-lineal shifts in perspective gave movement to the narrative, and made for a really engaging read. It also speaks a lot to memory and the role this plays in the aftermath of the Holocaust, noting that for many families there simply are no answers to what happened to their ancestors.
I thought this was incredible, and a unique addition to historical fiction set during the Holocaust.
I was thoroughly captivated by this novel - Presser writes so eloquently and immediately anchors the reader within the narrative. While a novel and work of fiction, it read like investigative journalism in parts. The non-lineal shifts in perspective gave movement to the narrative, and made for a really engaging read. It also speaks a lot to memory and the role this plays in the aftermath of the Holocaust, noting that for many families there simply are no answers to what happened to their ancestors.
I thought this was incredible, and a unique addition to historical fiction set during the Holocaust.
rosecityreader's review against another edition
4.0
Australian author Bram Presser creates his grandparents' Holocaust story out of family history, imagination, old photographs, and ephemera in his heart-warming first novel, The Book of Dirt.
Growing up, Presser’s grandparents never talked about their Holocaust experiences. After they died, Presser read a newspaper article claiming that his grandfather had been selected by the Nazis to be the literary curator of Hitler’s Museum of the Extinct Race, which inspired him to learn more and eventually lead to this book.
The Book of Dirt is historical fiction set in the context of the Holocaust, but it should appeal to any reader interested in memory, identity, and family storytelling. It is a novel about how we know the people we love, and how we recreate their lives in memory.
Growing up, Presser’s grandparents never talked about their Holocaust experiences. After they died, Presser read a newspaper article claiming that his grandfather had been selected by the Nazis to be the literary curator of Hitler’s Museum of the Extinct Race, which inspired him to learn more and eventually lead to this book.
The Book of Dirt is historical fiction set in the context of the Holocaust, but it should appeal to any reader interested in memory, identity, and family storytelling. It is a novel about how we know the people we love, and how we recreate their lives in memory.
abookishtype's review against another edition
3.0
Unless a family is particularly close knit, garrulous, and practice good document management, the histories of specific members will be forgotten after a generation or two. Documents and photos can give descendants hints about the full, rich lives that were live (except for all the Norwegian potato farmers in my family). When disasters, war, and other destructive events swept through, we lose clues to the past. In the case of the narrator of Bram Presser’s The Book of Dirt, the greatest disaster—the Holocaust—not only meant that there were few documents to trace his family’s story, but also that the survivors were unwilling or unable to share their stories. So, the narrator (who is also named Bram Presser) set out to write stories for his maternal grandparents. The Book of Dirt is the product of Presser as narrators’s research and imagination...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
orangekat's review against another edition
4.0
The first half was powerful; almost every page had writing and revelations that punched me in the heart. In the second half the writing became confusing and it was difficult to sort out event sequences within scenes, which made finishing feel like a chore. But, man, those first few chapters can't be topped.