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Literature · Holocaust

In the Shadow of No Memory

Summarizing Akiva Schick in Jewish Review of Books · Published Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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JL;DR SUMMARY Stuart Nadler's novel "Rooms for Vanishing" intricately explores the impact of the Holocaust through the lens of a fragmented Viennese family, scattered across the globe and convinced of their sole survival. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Family  Holocaust  Jewish Identity  Kindertransport  Trauma  Memory  Surrealism  Stuart Nadler  W. G. Sebald  Austerlitz 

Places mentioned

London, United Kingdom
"Memories and their unreliability animate Rooms for Vanishing, a new novel by Stuart Nadler that faces the Holocaust and its effects from a respectful, reluctant distance. Told across decades in a series of surreal vignettesa dead girl is seen wandering London, a man takes a nighttime stroll across New York with a ghost the novel follows a Viennese family of survivors who have been scattered across the world, each believing themself to be the sole surviving member."
New York, United States
"Memories and their unreliability animate Rooms for Vanishing, a new novel by Stuart Nadler that faces the Holocaust and its effects from a respectful, reluctant distance. Told across decades in a series of surreal vignettesa dead girl is seen wandering London, a man takes a nighttime stroll across New York with a ghost the novel follows a Viennese family of survivors who have been scattered across the world, each believing themself to be the sole surviving member."
Vienna, Austria
"Memories and their unreliability animate Rooms for Vanishing, a new novel by Stuart Nadler that faces the Holocaust and its effects from a respectful, reluctant distance. Told across decades in a series of surreal vignettesa dead girl is seen wandering London, a man takes a nighttime stroll across New York with a ghost the novel follows a Viennese family of survivors who have been scattered across the world, each believing themself to be the sole surviving member."
Israel
"Fania strikes up a relationship with Hermann, an English student she tutors. He, too, lost all of his family in the war and, when he lived in Israel, found himself haunted by visions of his son:"
Eilat, Southern District, Israel
"Fania strikes up a relationship with Hermann, an English student she tutors. He, too, lost all of his family in the war and, when he lived in Israel, found himself haunted by visions of his son: I thought I saw him across the water from me. ... But then, on the beach in Eilat, looking across the Red Sea to Aqaba, I see him again, my boy with his shell, standing and listening, and so I drive there."
Aqaba, Jordan
"Fania strikes up a relationship with Hermann, an English student she tutors. He, too, lost all of his family in the war and, when he lived in Israel, found himself haunted by visions of his son: I thought I saw him across the water from me. ... But then, on the beach in Eilat, looking across the Red Sea to Aqaba, I see him again, my boy with his shell, standing and listening, and so I drive there."
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
"In 1966 Montreal, Sonjas mother, Fania, works as a lonely masseuse and helps recent immigrants with their English."
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"If the novel plays on the edge of surreality with Fania and Sonja, it dives in with Moses and the father, Arnold. In 2002, we meet Moses, raised near Prague but living in New York City and expecting the birth of his first grandchild."
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Retrieved 2025-07-16 05:31:23 UTC
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