Description
Book SynopsisVicky Unwin had always known her father – an erstwhile intelligence officer and respected United Nations diplomat – was Czech, but it was not until a stranger turned up on her doorstep that she discovered he was also Jewish.
So began a quest to discover the truth about his past – one that perhaps would help answer the niggling doubts she had always had about her ‘perfect’ father. Finally persuading him to allow her to open a closely guarded cache of family books and papers, Vicky discovered the identity of her grandfather: the tormented author and diplomat Hermann Ungar, hugely controversial in both life and in death, who was a protégé and possible lover of Thomas Mann, and a friend of Berthold Brecht and Stefan Zweig. How much of her father’s child was Vicky – and how much of his father’s child was he?
As Vicky worked to uncover deeply buried family secrets, she would find herself slowly unpicking the lingering power of ‘survivors’ guilt’ on the generations that followed the Holocaust, and would learn, via a deathbed confession, of the existence of a previously unknown sister.
Together, the sisters attempted to come to terms with what had made their father into the deeply flawed, complex, yet charismatic man he has always been, journeying together through grief and heartache towards forgiveness.
Trade Review'Vicky Unwin has written a personal history which highlights our very current, global concerns with identity and our place in the world. It is an intimate exploration of family – and the damage that can be passed from every generation to the next. A fascinating read, filled with secrets and suspense.' JoAnne Richards, prize-winning South African author of The Innocence of Roast Chicken
‘The Boy from Boskovice tells the compelling story of a daughter’s quest to find out the disturbing truth of who her own father really was ... This is an intimate narrative, cleverly woven, which sees the author courageously coming to terms with her father’s legacy. –Sarah Helm, author of If This is a Woman
'In her engaging memoir, Vicky Unwin approaches her family’s hidden history with all the care of an archeologist and bears out Faulkner’s assertion that, “No man is himself, he is the sum of his past.' – Peter Godwin, author of Mukiwa: A WhiteBoy in Africa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
"A fascinating, rich tale, which explores the infinite complexity of human nature when squeezed by the forces of history.” — Michela Wrong, author of Do Not Disturb
