Description:
From the fantasy worlds of childhood games, to merry singing by the River Váh, The Mulberry Tree is a powerful account of how an idyllic life in Northern Czechoslovakia is shattered as the Third Reich sweeps across Europe.
Brief description: David Short (1943-) is a prize-winning translator from Czech and Slovak. He took a degree in Russian and French at the University of Birmingham, followed by a year of Slavonic Philology, after which, in 1966, he went to Prague to acquire Czech, remaining there until 1972. From 1973 to 2011 he taught Czech and Slovak at the University of London School of Slavonic and East European Studies. His translations include works by such major Czech writers as Bohumil Hrabal, Karel Čapek and Vítězslav Nezval, as well as by the author of the first Slovak novel, Jozef Ignác Bajza, in addition to academic works in the fields of art, literature, linguistics and semantics.
Review Quotes:
"After reading the memoir, you will not want to have lived the author's life, but you will want to have her ability to recall and formulate memories into words. For most of us, memories are only random fragments in the brain. For Iboja Wandall-Holm, they are not." - Martin Ciel
"...it is an ethical illumination of experiences where person and time intersect; a reworking of history where past and present are not closed entities, because life experience is used and respect for the human being prevails. This makes the book beautiful, present and necessary." - Chr. Mailand-Hansen in Informationen
"Her voice is filled with a painful knowledge and yet moving faith in humanity. It is important to listen to, not least at a time when neo-Nazis are trying to whitewash the past and inflame people's xenophobia." - Vibeke Blaksteen in Kristeligt Dagblad
"...a valuable book, a memoir whose literary qualities make it deserve to be called more than just a story...a beautiful picture of a rich life." - Annelise Vestergaard in Jyllands-posten
"I have not read such an impressive book in years. In spite of the horrors experienced in the concentration camps, it is written with humour and love of life..." - Mogens Kofod-Hansen
"...a significant piece of European cultural history." - Ib Falkencrone in Vendsyssel Tidende