'A delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother's love.' - Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist

A powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter - a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out and 17 when the Nazis finally caught up with her. Torn apart from her family, she went on to survive four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March when she was too weak to walk. She lived when almost everyone she knew did not.

At 88, living in Australia, Mira is diagnosed with cancer and her daughter, a journalist, decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. As Mira gives her testimony Rachelle comes to understand how Mira's unique perspective - seeing her experiences through the lens of the goodness of the people who helped her - protected her from the depths of humanity's cruelty, and enabled her to go on to live a full and brilliant life.

Rachelle also fits together the jigsaw pieces of her own life as a child of a survivor. She comes to understand that however different their lives have been, she and her mother are uniquely united by a fierce inner strength to live, and a mystery of strange things that always seem to happen around them.

A beautiful story of love, loss, wonder and the deepest kind of trust in life, A Brilliant Life questions the role that fate, chance and destiny play. It is a tribute to family, a story of incredible resilience, and a chronicle of the deep connection between a mother and a child which not even death can destroy.

A powerful memoir of how simple acts of kindness helped Mira survive the horrors of the Holocaust to live a beautiful life, retold by her daughter.

About the Author
Rachelle Unreich has been a journalist for 35 years. Her work has appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Elle, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, Rolling Stone, Good Weekend, and she has been extensively published in the UK, US and South-East Asia. She spent seven years in the US writing about the entertainment industry and now lives in Melbourne.

Reviews
A delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother's love. * Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist *
This is a loving and tender book. It has a great simplicity of heart and openness of spirit ... it models the skill of restoration, of building a new life without the need for retribution. The world is currently in deep trauma. Somewhere the pain must end. Indirectly, this book suggests that such an ending is possible ... Mira's story presents a key to the future of humanity. * Sydney Morning Herald *
an affirmation of the miraculous nature of the human mind to make sense of humanity's worst inclinations, not just survive them * Rachel Griffiths *
If A Brilliant Life were a painting, it would be hanging in a Palazzo in Italy among the classic chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio - a technique from the Renaissance era where the contrast of light and dark brushstrokes tells the whole story with some melancholy shades. Unreich has cleverly painted her mother's story in all its shades of glory and despair; a woman who stepped into the canvas of life and painted her own bright fulfilling future. * Harper's Bazaar *



Book Information
ISBN 9781785306525
Author Rachelle Unreich
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Black and White Publishing
Publisher Bonnier Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 436g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 144mm * 30mm