Alex’s Wake

“Beautiful and brave…a chilling yet affirming account of human loss and recovery.”—David Maraniss, author of They Marched into Sunlight

“The opposite of love, Elie Wiesel has observed, is not hate but indifference. With Alex's Wake, the author proves himself the least indifferent and, because of that, the most loving of men.”
—Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball

"There are six million Holocaust stories. All of them are the same in sadness and devastation. Each is different in circumstance and fear. Martin Goldsmith eloquently tells the story of his search for family in the rubble of memory and distance. It's a moving journey of finding the past and his own determined and compassionate present."—Susan Stamberg, NPR

"A new perspective on the Holocaust...powerful and evocative"—New York Journal of Books

“Underscores the immense moral challenges and failings of a nation that believes itself the leader of the free world…. A heartbreaking story of fear, frustration, anti-Semitism, and betrayal.”—Baltimore Sun

“A child of persecuted German Jews remembers his tormented, perished forebears—and makes peace with the country that hounded them to death…A well-researched, thorough reckoning of this shameful past.”—Kirkus Reviews