image of person or book cover 4454868165951782471.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
Issue Details: First known date: 1997... 1997 The Fiftieth Gate : A Journey Through Memory
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A love story and a detective story, a study of history and of memory, this spellbinding new work explores a son's confrontation with the terror of his parents' childhood. Moving from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, Mark Raphael Baker travels across the silence of fifty years, through the gates of Auschwitz, and into a dark bunker where a little girl hides in fear. As he returns to scenes of his parents' captivity, he struggles to unveil the mystery of their survival. The Fiftieth Gate is a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; the story of a son who enters his parents' memories and, inside the darkness, finds light.' (Harper Collins)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 1997 .
      image of person or book cover 4454868165951782471.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xiii, 339p.p.
      Description: illus., map
      Note/s:
      • Includes bibliography.
      ISBN: 0732258049
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 9089155099986770194.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xvii, 348p.p.
      Description: illus., map
      ISBN: 9781925498615, 1925498611

Works about this Work

No Magic Can Turn Back Loss Felicity Plunkett , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23 September 2017; (p. 25)

'Joan Didion’s 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking begins: “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” After the death of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, she examines grief the way a writer examines anything: “In times of trouble … read, learn, work it up, go to the literature.” Mark Raphael Baker, director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Monash University, began writing Thirty Days after the death of his wife, Kerryn Baker. Like Didion’s, his work is framed by a motif of magic and the quest for a kind of cognitive trick that might turn back loss.' (Introduction)

The Fiftieth Gate : An Australian Case Study in Twentieth-Century 'Popular' Publishing Robin Freeman , 2005 single work essay
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 4 2005;
'...[This] paper explores the mechanisms by which the Australian publishing subsidiary of an international conglomerate, with its profit imperatives and consequent adoption of risk-averse publishing strategies, created a bestselling book from the unlikely source of a second-generation literary memoir.' - The author.
Generations of Journeys Janis Wilton , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Speaking to Immigrants : Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration 2002; (p. 149-169)
The Fiftieth Gate : An Australian Case Study in Twentieth-Century 'Popular' Publishing Robin Freeman , 2005 single work essay
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 4 2005;
'...[This] paper explores the mechanisms by which the Australian publishing subsidiary of an international conglomerate, with its profit imperatives and consequent adoption of risk-averse publishing strategies, created a bestselling book from the unlikely source of a second-generation literary memoir.' - The author.
Generations of Journeys Janis Wilton , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Speaking to Immigrants : Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration 2002; (p. 149-169)
No Magic Can Turn Back Loss Felicity Plunkett , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23 September 2017; (p. 25)

'Joan Didion’s 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking begins: “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” After the death of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, she examines grief the way a writer examines anything: “In times of trouble … read, learn, work it up, go to the literature.” Mark Raphael Baker, director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Monash University, began writing Thirty Days after the death of his wife, Kerryn Baker. Like Didion’s, his work is framed by a motif of magic and the quest for a kind of cognitive trick that might turn back loss.' (Introduction)

Last amended 8 May 2023 08:26:21
Settings:
  • c
    Poland,
    c
    Eastern Europe, Europe,
  • c
    Germany,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • Jerusalem,
    c
    Israel,
    c
    Middle East, Asia,
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
  • ca. 1939-1990
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