Dora Bruder

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Dora Bruder is a biography, an autobiography and a detective novel by French writer Patrick Modiano about a Jewish teenage girl who went missing during the German occupation of Paris. It was first published in French on 2 April 1997 and published in English in December 1999.[1]

The book is also entitled The Search Warrant for the British edition of the translation.[2]

Plot[edit]

The book starts when the narrator comes across a missing person ad in the Paris Soir newspaper on 31 December 1941 looking for Dora Bruder. She is a 15-year-old Jewish girl. Modiano starts his investigations based on public records and conversations with Dora's family members. She was born in the 12th arrondissement and lives in 18th arrondissement of Paris. Her parents sent her to a catholic school in December 1941 from which she ran away. She was later found in April 1942 but her father, a Jew of Austrian background, had been arrested and sent to the internment camp of Drancy where she will also end up. Dora and her father will eventually be deported to Auschwitz on 18 September 1942.

Themes[edit]

Dora Bruder is a typical example of the themes found across Modiano's work such as memory, loss, recovery, time.[3][4][5]

The German occupation of Paris and the status of the Jews in Paris during this time is also a central theme of Modiano's work since his first novel.[6][7]

Across the story, Modiano adds his personal experiences with his father through Dora's interactions with her family, his life in the same neighbourhood or his escape from school when he was 14.[8][9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Modiano, Patrick (December 1999). Dora Bruder. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520214262.
  2. ^ Wood, Michael (2000-11-30). "J. xx Drancy. 13/8/42 · LRB 30 November 2000". London Review of Books. 22 (23). Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. ^ Ambrosino, Brandon (2014-10-09). "This passage perfectly captures Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano's obsession with memory". Vox. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  4. ^ Greenberg, Judith (2006-06-01). "Trauma and Transmission: Echoes of the Missing Past in Dora Bruder". research gate. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  5. ^ Alter, Alexandra; Bilefsky, Dan (2014-10-09). "Patrick Modiano, a Modern 'Proust,' Is Awarded Nobel in Literature". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  6. ^ Hoare, Liam (2018-03-21). "Child of Occupation". Jewish Review of Books. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  7. ^ "Remembering Dora Bruder: Patrick Modiano's Surrealist Encounter with the Postmemorial Archive | POSTMODERN CULTURE". www.pomoculture.org. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  8. ^ Schwartz, Alexandra (28 September 2015). "Patrick Modiano, True Detective". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  9. ^ Mingelgrün, Albert (2003). "Jeux de moi chez Patrick Modiano". In Miething, Christoph (ed.). Jeux de moi chez Patrick Modiano.: De "La Place de l'Étoile" à "Dora Bruder" (1 ed.). De Gruyter. pp. 123–128. JSTOR j.ctvbkjv99.14. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
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