In 1944, twelve-year-old Ditke, her parents, and her siblings are forced out of their home by the Nazis and sent to a series of concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. Miraculously surviving the war with one of her sisters, but losing her parents and a brother, Ditke begins a tortuous journey—first back to Hungary, where she knows she doesn't belong, and then to Israel. There, she holds various jobs before she leaves with a dance troupe, touring Turkey, Switzerland, and Italy. In Italy she finds a home, at last, and a small measure of peace; there, too, she falls in love and marries.
Lost Bread has been labeled by Ms. Bruck’s publisher as a novel. But the book’s story tracks so closely to the details of its author’s life that it would be more accurately classified as an autobiographical novel infused with occasional flights of fancy, sudden jumps in narrative viewpoint, and almost hallucinatory descriptions of the horrors witnessed in the concentration camps ... In whatever language you encounter Ms. Bruck’s work, her spare prose captures the raw terror and bitter sorrow of the camps. She also finds lyrical beauty and unexpected joy in moments of calm. Reading her work is like breaking bread with her, seeking light amid the shadows cast by history.
Bruck’s gaze is often postwar, even if she’s recounting events directly tied to Nazi atrocities. As scholars have noted, Bruck’s frequent focus on the period following the liberation of the camps is part of what makes her work original and compelling.
