Haunted by the fate of Dora Bruder - a fifteen-year-old girl listed as missing in an old December 1941 issue of Paris Soir - Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano sets out to find all he can about her. From her name on a list of deportees to Auschwitz to the fragments he is able to uncover about the Bruder family, Modiano delivers a moving survey of a decade-long investigation that revived for him the sights, sounds and sorrowful rhythms of occupied Paris. And in seeking to exhume Dora Bruder's fate, he in turn faces his own family history.
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Eight years ago, in an old copy of Paris Soir dated 31 December 1941, a heading on page three caught my eye: 'From Day to Day'. Below this I read: PARIS. Missing, a young girl, Dora Bruder, age 15, height 1.55m, oval-shaped face, grey-brown eyes, grey sports jacket, maroon pullover, navy-blue skirt and hat, brown gym shoes.
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(Vintage Digital, 6 August 2020, e-book, 144 pages, bought from AmazonKindle)
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This is a new author for me. I read The Search Warrant because I'm reading all the books in the Vintage Editions series. I enjoyed this a lot. I didn't realise at first the book is the author's true account of his investigation, almost obsession with finding out what happened to Dora Bruder. I found this an incredibly sad book. It takes the author a long time to glean any information about the missing girl and there's still no actual resolution. I also liked the way his search for the true opens connections to his own past. This is worth a read.
