Synopsis
Solomon Brager grew up with accounts of their great-grandparents’ escape from Nazi Germany, told over and over until their understanding of self was bound up with the heroic details of their ancestors’ exploits. Their great-grandmother related how her husband, a boxing champion, thrashed Joseph Goebbels and cleared beer halls of Nazis with his fists, how she broke him out of an internment camp and carried their children over the Pyrenees mountains. But that story was never the whole picture; zooming out, everything becomes more complicated.
Alongside the Levis’ propulsive journey across Europe and to the United States, Brager distills fascinating research about the Holocaust and connected periods of colonial history. Heavyweight asks us to consider how the patterns of history emerge and reverberate, not as a simple chain of events but in haunting layers. Confronting the specters of violence as both historian and descendent, this book is an exploration of family mythology, intergenerational memory, and the mark the past makes on the present.
From: HarperCollins Publishers
Notes on This Title
This title considers both the life of the author, a trans Jewish person, and their great-grandfather who lived in Nazi Germany.
Awards
None.
Reviews
Starred Review: “This brilliant and incisive work takes stock of the intermingled horror, humor, and pathos of history.” (Source: Publishers Weekly)
“An intense, brilliantly conceived graphic memoir announcing the arrival of a new talent to watch.” (Source: Kirkus Reviews)
“[A] boundary-breaking, accessible, and meticulously researched – albeit emotionally difficult – book that could aid many people’s understandings of both the tragedies of the past and the savagery of our current moment.” (Source: Autostraddle)
Interviews
Writer’s Digest: “Solomon Brager: Don’t Count on Sticking to Your Timeline“