{"product_id":"i-seek-a-kind-person-9781399806732","title":"I Seek a Kind Person","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''I SEEK A KIND PERSON WHO WILL EDUCATE MY INTELLIGENT BOY, AGED 11.''\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out adverts offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the \u003ci\u003eManchester Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life and death.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEighty-three years later, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e journalist Julian Borger comes across the advert that saved his father, Robert, from the Nazis. Robert had kept this a secret, like almost everything else about his traumatic Viennese childhood, until he took his own life. Drawn to the shadows of his family''s past and starting with nothing but a page of newspaper adverts, Borger traces the remarkable stories of his father, the other advertised children and their families, each thrown into the maelstrom of a world at war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom a Viennese radio shop to the Shanghai ghetto, internment camps and family homes \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne extraordinary story after another\u003c\/b\u003e...\u003cb\u003e not only forensically well-researched but tender, evocative and deeply moving\u003c\/b\u003e -- Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA powerful, eloquent and deeply affecting book. I loved it\u003c\/b\u003e -- Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare With Amber Eyes\u003cbr\u003eJulian's book is \u003cb\u003eprofoundly affecting\u003c\/b\u003e, part memoir, part detective story, part history, at once \u003cb\u003eelegiac and fascinating\u003c\/b\u003e, it is so \u003cb\u003edeeply relevant for our times, I zipped through it\u003c\/b\u003e withy the deepest personal interest -- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncredible... and so beautifully told\u003c\/b\u003e. One of those books that reminds you that great sweeps of history are made up of individual human lives, as real and hopeful as any of us -- Hadley Freeman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA compelling account of love, loss and great courage\u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003eBeautiful, powerfully told and deserving of the widest possible audience\u003c\/b\u003e -- Fergal Keane, author of The Madness\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003eterrifying and enthralling \u003c\/b\u003edissection of Europe's greatest crime. Part memoir, part detective story - Borger ensures we know the full horror of the Holocaust, through his own family's experience. \u003cb\u003eThis work is a crucial part of the Holocaust testimonies - a dark story which we need to keep front and centre\u003c\/b\u003e -- Alan Rusbridger\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA moving account of the life changing impact of acts of kindness to strangers in need\u003c\/b\u003e... a salutary reminder for our own times -- Martin Sixsmith, author of The Lost Child of Philomena Lee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoignant beyond measure. In this dark telling, there is also light\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lyse Doucet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntensely moving\u003c\/b\u003e...\u003cb\u003e an utterly absorbing read\u003c\/b\u003e -- Fiona Hill, author of There Is Nothing for You Here\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRemarkable stories told with love, insight and respect\u003c\/b\u003e... This book is more than a poignant eulogy - it has important lessons for the modern era -- David Miliband\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary book\u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003ea work of meticulous investigation\u003c\/b\u003e...\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eYou may think you've read everything you need to about the Holocaust, but you haven't -- Lindsey Hilsum, author of In Extremis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e... \u003cb\u003eOne of the best books I have read\u003c\/b\u003e on the \"second generation\" literature -- Christophe Boltanski, author of The Safe House\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRaw, unflinching and honest\u003c\/b\u003e -- Baroness Arminka Helic of Millbank, former Special Advisor to the UK Foreign Secretary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn astonishing, moving and unflinching work of courage\u003c\/b\u003e -- David Rohde, author of In Deep\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA book for anyone interested in social history and the nature of humanity\u003c\/b\u003e... It brings a sweeping slice of history down to the very personal, the story of a father, of the decency of ordinary people. It shows that if people are given a start in life and a bit of security they can achieve great things, even in the face of terrible emotional damage -- Mick Lynch\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e... a beautiful, heart-breaking, amazing book -- Eric Schlosser, author of Command and Control\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA family memoir, a collective biography and a gripping detective story rolled into one\u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003e'Borger's splendid narrative is as much that of a world now vanished - Habsburg Vienna and the Jews of central and eastern Europe - as it is that of survivors and the terrible burden they carried' * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eThis is a compelling story, desperately sad yet shot through with moments of selflessness, hope and kindness, and Borger skilfully weaves the different strands of the narrative together * Daily Mail, Book of the Week *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Murray Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49407784485207,"sku":"9781399806732","price":15.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781399806732.jpg?v=1730500528","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/i-seek-a-kind-person-9781399806732","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}