The Gift of Reading ‘This Darkness Will Never End’ -- will you give it?

As long as I'm alive, so are they -- in my books, in my heart.

This precious thought is one of many that Edith Bruck shared with me in July when I visited her in Rome. We were speaking about her parents, and in Italian, her words were, "Finché vivo, vivono loro ... nei miei libri, nel mio cuore."

It's a sentiment that resonates deeply with me, even though my life's story is completely different from Edith Bruck's.

I, too, will do anything to keep the memory of my parents alive.

In her case, she's kept alive the memory of two souls who were cruelly persecuted and then executed by the Nazis in 1944. For more than 80 years, she's borne witness to their tragic ends.

And the least I can do is spread the word about her work, and share in the toil in one tiny way by translating her short stories.

Publishing This Darkness Will Never End, my translation of Edith's first short story collection, has been the highlight of my year, and it's given me membership in a club I deem quite special: the group of translators of Edith's work. They are translators of work by an Italian woman author. And last but not least, they are translators of works by Holocaust survivors. 

The colorful stories in this collection unearth a lost way of life: the rituals, preoccupations and joys of devout Jews living in rural Hungary in the years leading up to World War II. There are stories about the fearsome shochet who deems meat kosher -- or maybe not! -- and stories about the desperate but occasionally hilarious ways a poor man may attempt to feed his family.

The Holocaust looms like a specter in many of the stories -- sometimes only in the background, sometimes as the engine that drives the story to its harrowing climax -- but these tales are also testaments to the power of love and the primacy of familial bonds.

Her personal story is mesmerizing. Deported as a teen by the Germans, she survived Auschwitz and eventually made her way to Italy where she quickly mastered the Italian language, which became the instrument of her deliverance. She's published fiction, nonfiction and poetry. So treasured is she in Italy, Pope Francis insisted on meeting her and the two struck up a wonderful friendship.

At 94, she continues to write, dream, remember, share.

To those of you who have read the book, my thanks always. As you contemplate gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas, will you consider giving someone you love This Darkness Will Never End? 

You can buy the book on Amazon, at Bookshop or directly from the publisher. You can also buy it at Barnes & Noble, available to order and pick up at your local store or read as an e-book.

As I told the students at Otterbein College where I was invited to speak this Fall, this darkness will never end but thanks to Edith Bruck’s persistence, it has been transformed into literature, which will light the way for generations to come.

Thank you!

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