Cirrus@Austlit

'In late nineteenth century Vienna, Moritz, a young man from a well-to-do Jewish family, lives in the shadow of his older brother. Afflicted by a birthmark which in ancient times would have seen him left out for the wolves, he tries to retreat into a world of reading and writing. But unable to escape the ‘target on his face’, as his father calls it, Moritz is forced by his impatient nation into war. A story that takes the reader deep into the heady world of war, Zionism, salons, writers, artists, sexual awakening and the randomness of tragedy and redemption that follow.' (Publication summary)

'Ernst Leitz II (“the photography industry’s Schindler”) not only designed and manufactured Germany’s most famous camera, but also saved hundreds of Jewish lives from certain death during the Holocaust.

'From the kernel of this true story, Joe Reich weaves an interesting – sometimes outrageous – blend of fact and fiction, historical and current times, drawing the reader into the fictional life and exploits of the protagonist elderly “survivor” Jack (Yaakov Stein) now living in Melbourne. After trying to pass off a false testimony to a young Catholic photographer, Ian Gross, he then relents and tells us the truth ... Or does he?

'With false memoirs all the rage, this is clearly a fictitious story with some real characters, at once highly entertaining and deadly serious.' (Publication summary)

'Memoir of a Holocaust survivor. A moving memoir of how a seven-year-old boy born in a small Polish town is caught up in the dislocation, losses and trauma of the Holocaust, yet survives with the help and guidance of others. He tells his story without bitterness or sentimentality, but creates a vivid account of the places and people on his journey, the different languages he had to learn and his wonderful subsequent family life in Australia. What the critics said: ‘The story of a remarkable life … Zwi Lewin collects several different names as he careers through Eastern Europe, a child one step ahead of the advancing Nazis. In a story of hunger and fear and loneliness and loss, we hear Zwi’s voice, mildly understating all. Later Zwi embraces the goodness of Australia gratefully, a country which bring him to safety. Here becomes a patriarch, but ever looking, searching for those lost to him. In a final chapter of unbearable poignancy the nonagenarian Zwi addresses the father whom he barely knew.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Melbourne, 1970. Arnold is a first year resident at the Royal. It is a year of bridging: from medical student to doctor, child to adult, from mindless obedience to independent thought.

'Working endless hours in a hospital that seems to value tradition over competence, Arnold and his fellow residents comically bumble along. The only constant are his nightmares: a phobia of police. Despite his fears, it is Arnold who breathlessly calls the police to say he witnessed Peter stab Greg outside the hospital. Greg is a fellow resident doctor and Arnold's closest friend while Peter is a recently arrived immigrant working on the construction of the Westgate Bridge. So what brings these two seemingly unconnected men together in such a dramatic way?

'In this dark yet comic tale of coming of age we meet those born in the aftermath of the Holocaust, self-absorbed and ignorant of the shadow it casts over their lives. There are many bridges to be crossed that year. But not all of them will remain standing.' (Publication summary)