The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
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| Author | Daniel Mendelsohn |
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Publication date | September 2006 |
| Awards | |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-054297-9 |
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million is a non-fiction memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn, published in September 2006, which has received critical acclaim as a new perspective on Holocaust remembrance. It was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award,[citation needed] the National Jewish Book Award,[1] and the Prix Médicis in France.[citation needed] It was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper History Prize in the UK[citation needed] and placed second for the 2006 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Nonfiction.[2] An international bestseller, The Lost has been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, German, Romanian, Turkish, Norwegian, and Hebrew.
The Lost tells of Mendelsohn's world-wide travels in search of details about the lives and fates of a maternal great-uncle, Samuel (Shmiel) Jäger, his wife, Ester, and their four daughters who lived in Bolechow and were killed during the Nazi occupation. According to the author, the book "is about trying to find out exactly, specifically, what happened to those people."[3]
In writing The Lost, Mendelsohn notes a debt to Marcel Proust, telling Salon.com, "Clearly, the book is in some large sense about the possibility of recovering the past, so it's automatically a Proustian book."
Reception
On Bookmarks November/December 2006 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a 
(4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "In the end, however, "By honoring these six relatives, Mendelsohn has paid homage to all of those who perished in Hitler’s Final Solution" (San Francisco Chronicle)".[4]
References
- ^ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
- ^ "Awards: B&N's Discoveries; Books for a Better Life". Shelf Awareness. 2007-03-01. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (December 14, 2006). "Finding "The Lost"". Salon.com. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
- ^ "The Lost By Daniel Mendelsohn". Bookmarks. Archived from the original on 8 Sep 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
External links
- The Lost video - Conversation with Daniel Mendelsohn, at publisher Harpercollins
- CNN interview transcript - July 13, 2002 interview about the original New York Times magazine article
- DanielMendelsohn.com
- New York Times Book Review front-page review by Ron Rosenbaum
- Elie Wiesel Review in The Washington Post
- New York Review of Books Review by Charles Simic (October 5, 2006)
- The Nation review
- Charlotte News-Observer review
- Newsday review
- On Point radio/ WBUR Interview (September 28, 2006)
- NPR story/ Fresh Air interview (October 18, 2006)
- Pittsburgh Tribune review
- Salon.com Interview (December 14, 2006)
- Times of London profile[dead link]
- LIRE: Entretien avec Daniel Mendelsohn