Book Talk: Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory

Elizabeth Rosner will discuss her book Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, which reflects upon intergenerational inheritance of trauma. Rosner retraces three trips taken with her father to Buchenwald concentration camp and the legacy of her family history, reflecting upon the second and third generation experience of the Holocaust.

Survivor Café also addresses the intergenerational survivors of other collective traumas, including decedants of African-American slavery, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The talk will examine current research in epigenetics and memory studies, along with discussions about the future of commemoration.

About the speakers

Elizabeth Rosner

Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist living in Berkeley, California. Her first book of non-fiction, Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, was published in September 2017 and was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award in the US. The Speed of Light, Rosner's acclaimed debut novel in 2001, was translated into nine languages. Short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina, the book won several literary prizes in both the US and Europe, including the Prix France Bleu Gironde; the Great Lakes Colleges Award for New Fiction; and Hadassah Magazine's Ribalow Prize, judged by Elie Wiesel.

Dr Anna Veprinska

Elizabeth Rosner will be introduced by Dr Anna Veprinska, who holds a PhD in English from York University in Toronto and a Master’s in English from the University of Oxford. From September 2016 until January 2017, Veprinska held a Cummings Foundation Fellowship at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. As a Volunteer Book Reviewer for The Wiener Library, Veprinska reviewed Survivor Café for our blog.