Charlotte

Charlotte Salomon is born into a family stricken by suicide and a country at war – but there is something exceptional about her. She has a gift, a talent for painting. And she has a great love, for a brilliant, eccentric musician. But just as she is coming in to her own as an artist, death is coming to control her country. The Nazis have come to power and, a Jew in Berlin, her life is narrowing – she is kept from her art, torn from her love and her family, chased from her country. And still she is not safe, not from the madness that has hunted her family, or the one gripping Europe …Charlotte is a heart-breaking true story – inspiring, unflinching, awful, hopeful – of a life filled with curiosity, animated by genius and cut short by hatred. A beautifully, lucidly told memorial, it has become an international sensation.

Reviews of Charlotte

I am deeply, deeply affected by this sad, beautiful, indignant, wrenching, important book … It's stunning — Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent The reader follows, lump in the throat, fascinated by this tragic fate, which is told with the utmost precision * Livres Hebdo * Astounding … Foenkinos makes us a part of this hopefully growing community: that of the admirers of a young artist named Charlotte Salomon, assassinated when she was 26 years old * L'Express * A sensitive and deeply moving novel * Paris Match * Astonishing * Le Journal de Dimanche * A shocking novel written with rare delicacy and honesty * Page * Deeply affecting, David Foenkinos' novel is like a song, celebrating the beauty, passion and drive of Charlotte Salomon's life * L'Arche * Devastating … Charlotte is one of these books by which a writer measures himself against the rules of his craft. A gamble which more than paid off for Foenkinos * Lire * A beautiful homage * Le Figaro * The charm of this novel can be described in one word: admiration. That of a talented novelist for a genius artist. This feeling gives the book greatness * Le Figaro Litteraire * The striking portrait of a woman whom the writer can't part with. Not to be missed * Nouvelles Semaines * Everything in this book is a success * Rappels * There is no page where the emotion doesn't come through in this poignant ode * Phosphore * To be read in one sitting * Challeges *