Elena: A Hand Made Life
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:22nd Aug '24
£25.00
Available for immediate dispatch.
**A GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR**
This is the story of the ordinary extraordinary life of Dr Elena Zadik.
'Each page of this book contains treasures' - Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison
Lives were bent in the furnaces of the twentieth century, but Elena Zadik was unbroken. With a stethoscope, a jar of herring and a hearing aid occasionally switched on, she forged an extraordinary life. Elena ran through the twentieth century without looking back.
A refugee twice before she was 17, she broke glass ceilings to become a doctor during World War 2. She was as brilliant a doctor as she was terrible a driver (she never took a test). Finding community, falling in love and starting a family in Sheffield while her parents were imprisoned and killed in Auschwitz, she swam against the odds with courage and tenacity.
Miriam gathers the threads of her Granny’s story, reflecting on their unconventional relationship and how trauma travels down through the generations in this gorgeous brocade of illustration and collage.
Granny was an unintentionally hilarious woman, often difficult, always opinionated and deeply resourceful. Her hands were always busy and form the heart of this timely, irresistible graphic story of the ordinary extraordinary resilience of women.
A heartfelt and charming graphic memoir of love, family and fearless women.
'It brings with it an unfathomable power and richness… a visual and a nostalgic treat… [and] a quietly political book' * Observer, *Graphic Novel of the Month* *
The deeply affecting life of Miriam Gold’s grandmother has found its most radiant storyteller. Tender, funny and triumphant, the exquisite depiction of these personal memories deserves the widest readership -- Simon Garfield, author of All the Knowledge in the World
The story of one extraordinary ordinary woman wrapped up in the change and chaos of the twentieth century, told with great care, kindness and no small amount of playfulness. Each page of this book contains treasures -- Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison
I read this rare gem in one sitting, captivated by a heroine whose inspiring life and handiwork could have been lost to history were it not for a granddaughter with a very different life, and very different work to do, but performed with hands no less loving, painstaking, restorative. A beautiful evocation of the enigma of transmission, transformation and survival -- Devorah Baum, author of On Marriage
A warm, perceptive tribute to Miriam Gold’s doughty Jewish grandmother, whose grit and knitting needles carried her through displacement, war, tragedy and hardship -- Posy Simmonds
The dark shadow of the Holocaust experience lies across the beauty and determination of Elena Zadik’s experience. But, rather than force it onto the reader’s conscience or consciousness, it slowly seeps in as the story develops. It is a wonderful book, telling a remarkable story, beautifully produced and hauntingly memorable -- Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds
[An] exquisite graphic memoir…funny, heartfelt and poignant… Elena is written with love but also with honesty * Jewish Chronicle *
[A] moving and ingenious book… this unvarnished portrait of a funny, rude, wilful, astonishing figure is a fitting tribute to a woman who “ran through the 20th century without looking back” * New Statesman *
It’s the small observations that linger: how she wore her glasses, battered her car’s gearbox and knitted “generously and abundantly”. * Guardian, *Books of the Year* *
ISBN: 9781787335226
Dimensions: 224mm x 161mm x 22mm
Weight: 674g
200 pages