Lost

A gripping detective story, a stirring epic, a tale of ghosts and darkmarvels, a thrilling display of scholarship, a meditation on theunfathomable mystery of good and evil, "The Lost" is as complex and richwith meaning and story as the past it seeks to illuminate. A beautifulbook, beautifully written.' Michael Chabon 'The Lost' is the story of anodyssey in search of six ghosts. Daniel Mendelsohn grew up in a familyhaunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust -- anunmentionable subject that gripped the author's imagination from hisearliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache ofdesperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939, Mendelsohn embarkedon a hunt for the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. Thatquest eventually took him to a dozen countries on three continents,including Ukraine, Poland, Israel, Australia, Sweden and Denmark -- anepic journey that gradually exposed the tragic conflicts that can arisebetween the history we live and the stories we tell.Deftly moving betweenpast and present, interweaving reportage with richly evoked childhoodmemories of a now-lost generation of immigrant Jews, 'The Lost' transformsthe story of one family into a profound meditation on our fragile hold onthe past. Grippingly suspenseful and beautifully written, this literarytour de force brilliantly illuminates all that is lost, and found, in thepassage of time.